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Ticket Rationing a Substitute for Price Rationing 



Our national rationing policy is to substitute a frozen 

 ceiling price and a book of tickets for the fluctuating price 

 mechanism. There are striking contrasts between the two 

 systems. 



In a capitalistic system the individuals collectively tell 

 the individuals through prices what they want them to do. 

 In a collective society some individual decides and tells other 

 individuals what they, individually and collectively, must do. 



In a regimented society price plays a minor role. Produc- 

 tion, consumption, and distribution are controlled by edict. 

 Priorities, ration cards, tickets, and stamps become the cur- 

 rency that dictates production, moves goods from the pro- 

 ducer to the consumer, and determines how they shall be 

 consumed. 



The regimented system does not work perfectly, but pre- 

 sumably it can be made to work. Where it has been used, it 

 has proved ruthless and no discriminator of persons. Those 

 who did not respond to its mandates were prevented from 

 interfering with society's best interests by the simple process 

 of turning them over to the firing squad, a cheap and efficient 

 way of liquidating those who do not obey. In totalitarian 

 states, under this system, if an individual makes a mistake, 

 he does not have an opportunity to make a new start in life. 

 Those who are liquidated cease to be productive. 



The ticket system is not automatic and not efficient. It 

 has the disadvantage that it is very expensive. Large amounts 

 of human labor are required in central offices and scattered 

 throughout a nation to supervise the production, distribu- 

 tion, and consumption of goods. 



Rationing increases the operating costs of distribution. It 

 also inconveniences all consumers and decreases the effi- 

 ciency of many war workers. 



