Rationing

Rationing by: Reese

Rationing is when the government says that we can only have a certain amount of a certain item so that way one family doesn't have more things then another family. That meant that you couldn't just walk into a shop and buy as much sugar or butter or meat as you wanted, and you couldn't fill up your car with gasoline whenever you wanted. All of these things were rationed, which meant that you were only allowed to buy a small amount even if you were rich. The government introduced rationing because all of these things were needed during the war, and rationing was the only way to make sure everyone got a fair amount of things. civilians and soldiers had to ration food so there was enough for everyone. For example, each person may be given "ration coupons" letting him or her buy a certain amount of food or water each month. Rationing includes a lot of food and other things that are limited, including things needed for the war as in rubber tires, leather shoes, clothing and gasoline. at the end of the war people started panicking in the united kingdom, and they started to hoard, first sugar, then meat, because they were afraid that they would not have enough. When America first entered the world war II, lots of people volunteered to fight so shops started to make leather boots and uniforms for the war instead of furniture for people living at home. And if another shop was making cars they would start making weapons for the war. For example; when they stopped making goods for regular people, a shop that still sold sugar said,"since no other shop is selling sugar, I'm going to raise the price to $5.00." Since the people couldn't afford the prices the government had to "freeze" the prices and say to the o wners that they couldn't go over $2.00. War ration books and tokens were issued to each American family, dictating how much gasoline, tires, sugar, meat, silk, shoes, nylon and other items any one person could by.