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create the black market. Another arm of the government 

 sets the rules to kill the black market, and a third arm of the 

 government finds ways to evade the law. It has been re- 

 ported that one unit of government paid one third more than 

 the ceiling price for dressed meat under "a very prudent and 

 intelligent purchasing plan." 



Not all these people can be crooks, but the opportunities 

 thus set up are a happy hunting ground for the real crooks. 



Causes of Evasion 



People patronize black markets when they have an excess 

 of purchasing power and when they feel that they have been 

 treated inequitably. The consumer goes along with the ceil- 

 ing prices and the rationing as long as his groceryman's or 

 butcher's supplies are not too far out of line with his coupons, 

 his purchasing power, and his usual food habits, and as long 

 as he is convinced that he is being treated reasonably equi- 

 tably. If he feels that he has been discriminated against on 

 any of these counts, he is a potential customer for the black 

 market. 



Retailers, wholesalers, and jobbers operate black markets 

 as a means of self-preservation. Casualty rates in the dis- 

 tributive trade are high. Most operators enter the field on a 

 shoestring, and a high percentage are forced out without 

 even a tip of the string. If equitable prices are not fixed for 

 each step in the distributive trade, black markets inevitably 

 will spring up. The motive is economic survival. Few black- 

 market operators knowingly sabotage the war effort. The 

 propensity to survive in business will keep men violating the 

 spirit of the law as long as the ceiling price is below the mar- 

 ket price and as long as the ingenuity of man can outwit the 

 law. The marketing mechanism is so complicated that it is 

 very difficult to write an order that does not permit evasion 

 if men are forced to evade. 



