Why not ration gas ?

Question

Foil speculators.

Answer 1

Do you want the government telling you how much you "should" be driving? Individuals should decide on their own how much gas they will use.

Answer 2

Let The Market dictate peoples lives, not Government Decree.

Those who can't afford fuel costs will adjust their lives accordingly. Instead of mandating changes to everybody in society, no matter the reason.

For instance, should a Fire Department in New York receive more or less fuel than a department in Pottsville, PA? If yes, then who is going to run the massive government agency tasked with policing fuel allotments?  If No, then what happens when the Pottsville FD has more than an estimated amount of fire calls and is low on fuel? Is some Government bureaucrat going to acknowledge the special case?  Its just NUTS..

Let the market dictate the supply, demand, and price. Those FDs which run low can get the local government to raise taxes to buy more fuel.  Markets work better than Governments.

Answer 3

Because I don't like black markets.....

First and foremost, the government that told your parents to duck and cover in the event of a nuke is the same one that would be running the rationing.

Second: What if you want/have to drive more than you're rationed amount of gas lets you. Lets say you can't get to work/the grocery store on the amount the government allots you? There wouldn't be enough to go around. They tried it in the 1970s when OPEC first flexed its power. It failed.

Third: The more observant of you might guess the logical place we reach from point two and the first sentence of this answer: black markets. You need to drive more than you're allowed with the gas rations? Ok, someone will sell you their rations... for four times the market price. Gas is $4 at the rationed price. Someone will sell you their unused rations at $16 a gallon, and you'll either buy it or do without.

Think the government can stop that kind of corruption? Think again. There would have to be more police/investigators/government officials hired to manage the system and try (and fail) to contain corruption.

This... will ... fail:

No lawmaker can repeal the laws of supply and demand. History has proven this time and time again. Talk to someone who lived in Soviet Russia, particularly a woman about what it took to get something as simple as nylon stockings.

It's a step towards communism, which has failed in each and every country it has been tried in.

In short, yes things are bad, but if you ration, you'll be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire....