WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.160 Welcome to the deep dive. We are really thrilled 00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:05.040 to have you with us today. Absolutely. Thanks 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:07.559 for joining us. Our mission on this show is always 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:09.939 the same. We take a stack of source material, 00:00:10.519 --> 00:00:12.419 extract the most crucial nuggets of knowledge, 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:15.939 and give you the ultimate shortcut to being well 00:00:15.939 --> 00:00:17.739 -informed. Right, skipping the boring parts. 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:20.960 Exactly. And today, we're pulling from a pretty 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:24.219 comprehensive overview on the concept and the 00:00:24.219 --> 00:00:26.359 history of rationing. Which is a much bigger 00:00:26.359 --> 00:00:29.160 topic than it sounds. It really is. I mean, I 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:30.660 know what you're probably thinking. When you 00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:32.659 hear the word rationing, your mind instantly 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:37.490 jumps to dusty World War II ration books, right? 00:00:37.609 --> 00:00:40.189 Yeah. Or Victory Gardens. Right. Victory Gardens. 00:00:40.609 --> 00:00:43.329 Or maybe long lines for a bag of sugar. But we're 00:00:43.329 --> 00:00:45.009 going to show you that rationing is actually 00:00:45.009 --> 00:00:47.689 a hidden mechanic of everyday life. It's everywhere. 00:00:47.890 --> 00:00:49.950 It dictates so much of the world around you, 00:00:49.969 --> 00:00:52.170 from your summer trip to an amusement park to 00:00:52.170 --> 00:00:55.250 the way global health care systems operate. You 00:00:55.250 --> 00:00:57.329 want the deep knowledge without feeling overwhelmed 00:00:57.329 --> 00:01:00.750 by an encyclopedia. And, well, that's exactly 00:01:00.750 --> 00:01:03.030 what we're delivering today. Exactly. We're going 00:01:03.030 --> 00:01:05.739 to approach this systematically. First, we explore 00:01:05.739 --> 00:01:08.739 the underlying economic mechanisms of rationing, 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:11.400 you know, the invisible gears that actually make 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:13.939 it work. The economics of it. Right. And from 00:01:13.939 --> 00:01:17.780 there, we'll trace its rather grim and starkly 00:01:17.780 --> 00:01:21.379 unequal history through military sieges and the 00:01:21.379 --> 00:01:23.879 world wars. Some of that history is pretty intense. 00:01:24.019 --> 00:01:26.620 It is. Then we'll shift gears into some truly 00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:29.439 surprising peacetime implementations, like... 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:32.219 historical alcohol rationing, for instance. Oh, 00:01:32.299 --> 00:01:35.079 that part is wild. And finally, we'll examine 00:01:35.079 --> 00:01:37.540 modern -day applications including carbon emissions 00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:40.120 and health care. By the end of this conversation, 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:42.040 you're going to see your daily routines in a 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:44.040 completely different light. Okay, let's unpack 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:46.739 this. Let's start with the absolute basics. What 00:01:46.739 --> 00:01:48.900 exactly are we talking about when we say something 00:01:48.900 --> 00:01:51.810 is being rationed? At its core, rationing is 00:01:51.810 --> 00:01:54.129 the controlled distribution of resources, goods, 00:01:54.230 --> 00:01:56.129 or services, especially when they're scarce. 00:01:57.010 --> 00:01:59.370 Economically speaking, authorities usually implement 00:01:59.370 --> 00:02:01.670 it to keep the price of a good below the market 00:02:01.670 --> 00:02:04.510 clearing rate. The market clearing rate. So normally, 00:02:04.909 --> 00:02:07.370 the market just handles scarcity by pricing people 00:02:07.370 --> 00:02:10.830 out. Precisely. The price shoots up until demand 00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:13.669 drops to meet the limited supply. Rationing steps 00:02:13.669 --> 00:02:16.150 in to artificially cap that. Right, which brings 00:02:16.150 --> 00:02:19.530 up this massive economic dilemma. price rationing 00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:22.210 versus non -price rationing. The classic trade 00:02:22.210 --> 00:02:24.889 -off. Yeah. Because when things get scarce, high 00:02:24.889 --> 00:02:27.150 prices technically do a great job of reducing 00:02:27.150 --> 00:02:29.870 waste, and they incentivize companies to produce 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:32.250 more of whatever's missing. But there's a huge 00:02:32.250 --> 00:02:35.550 catch. The glaring problem is that high prices 00:02:35.550 --> 00:02:38.409 make basic necessities completely unaffordable 00:02:38.409 --> 00:02:40.909 for the poorest people in a society. Exactly. 00:02:40.969 --> 00:02:43.310 They just get priced out of survival. So governments 00:02:43.310 --> 00:02:46.009 step in. But here is the part that will really 00:02:46.009 --> 00:02:48.840 give you an aha moment. Rationing isn't just 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:51.599 governments handing out stamp books. We deal 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:54.139 with non -price rationing every single day. We 00:02:54.139 --> 00:02:56.539 really do. Think about standing in a massive 00:02:56.539 --> 00:02:59.000 queue at an amusement park. That is a perfect 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.419 example. You pay to get into the park, but you 00:03:01.419 --> 00:03:03.939 don't pay for the individual rides. Exactly. 00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:06.560 Because the roller coaster is technically free 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:10.219 at the point of access. The demand is huge. So 00:03:10.219 --> 00:03:13.340 how is your access restricted? By time. By time. 00:03:13.580 --> 00:03:15.840 Waiting in that two hour line in the hot sun 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:19.000 is a literal form of non -price rationing. Or 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:21.979 think about sitting in horrible rush hour traffic. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:24.960 Oh man, the worst. Because the highway doesn't 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:27.759 have a toll, meaning access isn't rationed by 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:30.360 price. It's rationed by a first -come, first 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:33.919 -served queuing process. Traffic congestion is 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.479 literally rationing in action. Yeah, it makes 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:38.000 total sense. And whether we're talking about 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.780 a frustrating traffic jam or a wartime food shortage, 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:43.620 there's an inevitable backlash to these systems. 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:46.460 Whenever authorities introduce strict rationing, 00:03:46.659 --> 00:03:49.039 they almost always have to battle a black market. 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:51.219 Because people try to bypass the restrictions. 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:53.479 Naturally, even though rationing systems are 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:55.960 often the absolute only viable option to ensure 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:58.560 a society survives a severe shortage, they're 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:00.879 deeply unpopular. Because nobody likes being 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:03.379 told what they can't have. By definition, they 00:04:03.379 --> 00:04:05.699 enforce limits on individual consumption. People 00:04:05.699 --> 00:04:08.240 resent it. That resentment makes a lot of sense, 00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:10.199 especially when we look at the historical origins. 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:14.180 Going back to early military sieges, rationing 00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:16.600 wasn't about ensuring everyone got a fair share. 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:18.779 Not at all. Or protecting the vulnerable. It 00:04:18.779 --> 00:04:22.680 actually reflected brutal, stark social hierarchies. 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:26.720 It was incredibly inequitable. Take the 1857 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:29.000 Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion. 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:32.339 In that siege, women were only given three quarters 00:04:32.339 --> 00:04:34.680 of a man's food ration. And children received 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:37.759 a mere half. Half. It's just so... You see that 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:41.160 same stark inequality later during the 1900 Siege 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:44.000 of Ladysmith in the Boer War. White adults were 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:46.680 allocated the exact same food rations as the 00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:49.610 soldiers defending the town. But... Indian and 00:04:49.610 --> 00:04:52.209 black people trapped in that exact same siege 00:04:52.209 --> 00:04:56.009 received significantly smaller portions. It's 00:04:56.009 --> 00:04:58.670 a grim reality. The distribution of life -saving 00:04:58.670 --> 00:05:00.910 calories was entirely dependent on your race 00:05:00.910 --> 00:05:03.230 and your social standing. It was a very dark 00:05:03.230 --> 00:05:05.110 period for how these systems were managed. It 00:05:05.110 --> 00:05:07.170 wasn't until the First World War that we saw 00:05:07.170 --> 00:05:09.470 the implementation of what we'd call modern rationing 00:05:09.470 --> 00:05:11.860 systems. Germany was the first to introduce it 00:05:11.860 --> 00:05:14.399 in 1914. Largely because they were suffering 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:17.120 severely from British naval blockades. Britain, 00:05:17.139 --> 00:05:19.019 on the other hand, actually kept its sea lanes 00:05:19.019 --> 00:05:21.639 open for food imports and didn't suffer those 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:24.660 same initial shortages. But late in the war, 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:27.740 panic buying set in. Human nature took over. 00:05:28.040 --> 00:05:30.540 Yeah, the British public got scared, which forced 00:05:30.540 --> 00:05:33.879 the government to introduce ration books in 1918 00:05:33.879 --> 00:05:39.170 for basic staples. Meat. Butter. Sugar. What's 00:05:39.170 --> 00:05:41.810 fascinating here is the counterintuitive result 00:05:41.810 --> 00:05:45.209 of that British rationing program. You'd assume 00:05:45.209 --> 00:05:47.449 that restricting food intake during a devastating 00:05:47.449 --> 00:05:49.829 war would naturally damage public health. Right. 00:05:49.930 --> 00:05:51.810 You'd think people would be starving. But it 00:05:51.810 --> 00:05:54.129 actually benefited the overall health of the 00:05:54.129 --> 00:05:56.509 country. Because it forced a leveling of consumption. 00:05:56.730 --> 00:05:59.750 Right. Precisely. Because essential foodstuffs 00:05:59.750 --> 00:06:02.569 were evenly distributed across the board, the 00:06:02.569 --> 00:06:05.449 poorest members of society suddenly had guaranteed 00:06:05.449 --> 00:06:08.250 access to basic nutrition, nutrition that they 00:06:08.250 --> 00:06:10.750 couldn't afford in a normal free market. That's 00:06:10.750 --> 00:06:12.910 incredible. The national average caloric intake 00:06:12.910 --> 00:06:16.550 only dropped by 3 % and protein intake by 6%. 00:06:16.550 --> 00:06:18.689 So it was a marginal sacrifice for the wealthy 00:06:18.689 --> 00:06:21.850 elite. But a massive nutritional upgrade for 00:06:21.850 --> 00:06:25.939 the working poor. And that realization fundamentally 00:06:25.939 --> 00:06:28.540 changed how rationing was handled when World 00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:31.019 War II broke out. This is where it gets highly 00:06:31.019 --> 00:06:33.839 scientific. Two pioneers at the University of 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:36.439 Cambridge, Elsie Witteson and Robert McCance, 00:06:36.699 --> 00:06:39.899 decided to put rationing on a strict mathematical 00:06:39.899 --> 00:06:43.699 basis. They were brilliant. In 1939, to prove 00:06:43.699 --> 00:06:46.540 that Britons could survive, if German U -boats 00:06:46.540 --> 00:06:49.339 completely blockaded their food imports. These 00:06:49.339 --> 00:06:51.920 two scientists essentially used themselves as 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:54.540 guinea pigs. They didn't just sit in a lab either. 00:06:54.819 --> 00:06:57.899 They simulated the strenuous, grueling physical 00:06:57.899 --> 00:07:00.000 labor that the public would have to perform during 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.819 wartime. Like what? cycling miles into the mountains 00:07:02.819 --> 00:07:05.519 and actively working the land. And they did all 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:07.899 of this while eating a severely limited diet 00:07:07.899 --> 00:07:10.560 based entirely on what could be produced domestically 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:12.740 within the UK. Mostly potatoes and cabbage, right? 00:07:12.860 --> 00:07:14.899 Potatoes, cabbage, and domestic wheat. That was 00:07:14.899 --> 00:07:17.240 pretty much it. And they proved it was survivable. 00:07:17.699 --> 00:07:20.160 Their health and performance remained solid after 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:23.100 three months on this intense regime. It was a 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:25.459 groundbreaking experiment. Because of Witteson 00:07:25.459 --> 00:07:28.199 and McCants, the government started mandating 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:30.579 the addition of vitamins and minerals to food. 00:07:30.779 --> 00:07:32.939 They added calcium to bread, for example. And 00:07:32.939 --> 00:07:35.000 just like in the First World War, the result 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:38.439 was staggering. Despite the trauma of World War 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:41.860 II, infant mortality in the UK actually declined. 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:46.199 And life expectancy rose. It's wild. But life 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:48.300 on the home front definitely had some strange 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:51.899 quirks. In the UK, while meat and sugar were 00:07:51.899 --> 00:07:54.560 strictly restricted, fresh vegetables weren't. 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:57.259 Which sparked the famous Dig for Victory campaign. 00:07:57.360 --> 00:07:59.040 Right, where everyone was encouraged to grow 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:02.480 their own gardens. Also, shockingly, bread wasn't 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:04.660 rationed during the war in the UK. Though they 00:08:04.660 --> 00:08:07.500 did force bakeries to produce the national loaf. 00:08:07.899 --> 00:08:10.519 Oh, the infamous gray mush. It was universally 00:08:10.519 --> 00:08:13.139 hated. Yeah, it was a wholemeal bread that housewives 00:08:13.139 --> 00:08:16.300 absolutely despised because it was soggy, gray, 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:18.759 and apparently caused all sorts of digestive 00:08:18.759 --> 00:08:21.259 complaints. It's a great contrast to the American 00:08:21.259 --> 00:08:23.600 experience on the home front. In the United States, 00:08:23.660 --> 00:08:25.300 the system was rolled out through completely 00:08:25.300 --> 00:08:27.120 different channels. Right, the U .S. handled 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:30.089 it uniquely. American civilians received their 00:08:30.089 --> 00:08:32.490 first ration books, the so -called sugar book, 00:08:32.809 --> 00:08:35.690 in May of 1942, but it wasn't distributed by 00:08:35.690 --> 00:08:37.970 military personnel. Who handed it out? It was 00:08:37.970 --> 00:08:40.169 handed out by over a hundred thousand school 00:08:40.169 --> 00:08:43.129 teachers and parent -teacher associations. Wow. 00:08:43.789 --> 00:08:45.929 And the restrictions hit American culture in 00:08:45.929 --> 00:08:49.269 very specific ways. Gasoline rationing was implemented 00:08:49.269 --> 00:08:53.090 and it was so incredibly strict that the government 00:08:53.090 --> 00:08:56.019 banned all forms of auto racing entirely. Even 00:08:56.019 --> 00:08:58.480 the big ones. Even the Indianapolis 500 was shut 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:01.279 down just to conserve fuel and rubber for the 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:03.679 war effort. As fascinating as those home front 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:06.240 adjustments are, we have to look at the tragic 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:08.600 extreme of World War II rationing as well. We 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:11.340 do. We need to look at the Soviet Union, specifically 00:09:11.340 --> 00:09:14.600 the siege of Leningrad. The numbers are sobering. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.299 As the siege tightened, daily bread rations for 00:09:17.299 --> 00:09:20.779 workers dropped to just 250 grams. That's so 00:09:20.779 --> 00:09:22.690 little. For everyone else in the city, the ration 00:09:22.690 --> 00:09:25.649 was slashed to a mere 125 grams. To put that 00:09:25.649 --> 00:09:28.169 in perspective for you, 125 grams is about four 00:09:28.169 --> 00:09:30.929 and a half ounces of bread for an entire day. 00:09:31.129 --> 00:09:34.169 It predictably resulted in mass starvation. We 00:09:34.169 --> 00:09:37.269 have the diary of an 11 year old girl named Tanya 00:09:37.269 --> 00:09:40.539 Savicheva who lived through the siege. Her diary 00:09:40.539 --> 00:09:42.799 is heartbreaking. She kept a written record as 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:45.559 her sister, her grandmother, her brother, two 00:09:45.559 --> 00:09:48.720 uncles, and finally her mother all died of starvation. 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:51.820 Just awful. Her final diary entries simply read, 00:09:52.259 --> 00:09:55.200 Savychevs died. Everyone died. Only Tanya is 00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:57.179 left. And she didn't survive either, did she? 00:09:57.460 --> 00:10:00.559 No. She tragically passed away from intestinal 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:03.559 tuberculosis shortly after the siege ended. It's 00:10:03.559 --> 00:10:05.659 a stark reminder that while rationing can be 00:10:05.659 --> 00:10:08.340 an administrative tool or an inconvenience in 00:10:08.340 --> 00:10:11.600 some contexts, in others, it's a brutal arithmetic 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:14.659 of survival. The Leningrad Diary really strips 00:10:14.659 --> 00:10:17.259 away the economics and shows rationing as most 00:10:17.259 --> 00:10:19.440 desperate, which makes it all the more jarring 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:21.740 when you realize that strict rationing isn't 00:10:21.740 --> 00:10:24.480 always confined to active war zones. That's a 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:26.080 really important point. Here's where it gets 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:29.159 really interesting. Rationing often gets significantly 00:10:29.159 --> 00:10:31.779 stricter after a war ends. It's a pattern that 00:10:31.779 --> 00:10:34.500 catches a lot of people off guard. Right. Remember 00:10:34.500 --> 00:10:37.240 that mushy national loaf of bread in the UK that 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:39.639 wasn't rationed during the fighting? Yep. Well, 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:41.340 bread and potatoes were actually rationed in 00:10:41.340 --> 00:10:45.059 Britain after World War II. Fuel rationing didn't 00:10:45.059 --> 00:10:48.039 end there until 1950. And food rationing wasn't 00:10:48.039 --> 00:10:51.580 fully abolished until 1954. Almost 10 years later. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:53.580 That's nearly a decade after the peace treaties 00:10:53.580 --> 00:10:56.120 were signed. And it wasn't just the UK. Look 00:10:56.120 --> 00:11:01.000 at Israel. From 1949 to 1959, the country operated 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.139 under a strict austerity regime. Citizens were 00:11:04.139 --> 00:11:07.840 limited to a 2800 calorie daily diet. Utilizing 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:10.679 food coupons for basics like oil, sugar, and 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:13.220 margarine just to stabilize their newly formed 00:11:13.220 --> 00:11:15.960 devastated economy. But peacetime rationing isn't 00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:18.840 always about food and fuel shortages from a battered 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:21.240 economy. Sometimes it's about social engineering. 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:23.299 Oh, this is the Swedish alcohol thing. Exactly. 00:11:23.620 --> 00:11:26.240 Take the highly bureaucratic system used in Sweden. 00:11:26.090 --> 00:11:28.789 Sweden, Finland, and Estonia to ration alcohol. 00:11:29.009 --> 00:11:31.669 The BRAT system. This is one of the strangest 00:11:31.669 --> 00:11:34.409 historical footnotes. Citizens were issued these 00:11:34.409 --> 00:11:37.250 specific little booklets in Sweden. It was called 00:11:37.250 --> 00:11:40.210 a motbok. A stamp book for drinking. Every time 00:11:40.210 --> 00:11:42.190 you bought alcohol, a stamp was added to your 00:11:42.190 --> 00:11:44.610 book. Once you hit your monthly limit, you were 00:11:44.610 --> 00:11:47.690 cut off until the next month. But the wild part 00:11:47.690 --> 00:11:49.710 is how the rations were calculated. It wasn't 00:11:49.710 --> 00:11:52.429 equal at all. No, it wasn't an equal share for 00:11:52.429 --> 00:11:55.730 everyone. Your alcohol allowance was based on 00:11:55.799 --> 00:11:58.279 your gender, your wealth, and your social status. 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:01.679 If you were unemployed or on welfare, you were 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:04.580 legally not allowed to buy any alcohol at all. 00:12:04.700 --> 00:12:07.019 And the gender disparity was severe. Because 00:12:07.019 --> 00:12:09.840 the Mottbach was distributed per household rather 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:12.740 than per individual, wives were forced to share 00:12:12.740 --> 00:12:14.720 their husbands allowance. Which, in practice, 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:17.539 meant the wives effectively received no alcohol 00:12:17.539 --> 00:12:20.460 ration of their own. It weaponized bureaucracy 00:12:20.460 --> 00:12:24.100 to enforce moral codes. Naturally, people immediately 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:26.259 found loopholes. Because they couldn't just buy 00:12:26.259 --> 00:12:28.740 more alcohol at the store, citizens who wanted 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:30.960 to drink more would actually take strangers out 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:33.360 to dinner. They'd pay for the stranger's meal. 00:12:33.559 --> 00:12:35.679 On the condition that the stranger would order 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:38.200 alcohol, drink it, and take the stamp penalty 00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:41.000 in their own Mottbach. It's a perfect example 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:42.759 of what you mentioned earlier. Wherever there's 00:12:42.759 --> 00:12:45.899 a rationing system, humans will inevitably invent 00:12:45.899 --> 00:12:48.940 a gray market to get around it. It's just human 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:51.419 nature. And while the brat system sounds like 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:54.580 quirky history, we have to recognize that peacetime 00:12:54.580 --> 00:12:58.019 rationing is very much a modern reality. Many 00:12:58.019 --> 00:13:01.399 of you might remember the 1973 oil crisis where 00:13:01.399 --> 00:13:03.919 the United States introduced odd even rationing. 00:13:04.009 --> 00:13:06.610 meaning you could only buy gas on certain days 00:13:06.610 --> 00:13:08.730 depending on the last digit of your license plate. 00:13:08.850 --> 00:13:11.549 And then there's Cuba. Their system is incredibly 00:13:11.549 --> 00:13:13.950 complex and constantly shifting. They've had 00:13:13.950 --> 00:13:16.149 rationing for a long time. They enacted basic 00:13:16.149 --> 00:13:18.950 goods rationing in 1991 after the collapse of 00:13:18.950 --> 00:13:21.470 the Soviet Union, which had been heavily subsidizing 00:13:21.470 --> 00:13:24.389 their economy. By the early 2000s, they shifted 00:13:24.389 --> 00:13:27.889 to a unique dual market system. A liberated system, 00:13:27.889 --> 00:13:30.830 they call it. Exactly. Citizens used ration coupons 00:13:30.830 --> 00:13:34.019 to buy a specific amount of goods at deeply subsidized 00:13:34.019 --> 00:13:36.600 prices. But they could also buy more of those 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:39.039 same goods at regular, much higher market prices. 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:41.419 But economic realities forced their hand again. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.539 In 2019, due to strict U .S. sanctions and the 00:13:44.539 --> 00:13:46.820 collapse of oil shipments from Venezuela, Cuba 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:49.980 had to reintroduce a classical, strict, limiting 00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:53.279 rationing system. In fact, as of 2024, peacetime 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:55.580 food rationing is still actively in effect in 00:13:55.580 --> 00:13:58.200 both Cuba and North Korea. It's not just long 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:01.029 -term economic shifts either. Acute climate and 00:14:01.029 --> 00:14:03.370 economic crises trigger rationing all the time 00:14:03.370 --> 00:14:06.450 today. We see it constantly. In 2012, after Hurricane 00:14:06.450 --> 00:14:09.590 Sandy, gas was rationed in New York and New Jersey. 00:14:10.549 --> 00:14:14.389 From 2015 to 2019, California had mandatory water 00:14:14.389 --> 00:14:17.309 use restrictions due to severe droughts. Venezuela 00:14:17.309 --> 00:14:20.110 in 2019. Right, they had to implement a 30 -day 00:14:20.110 --> 00:14:23.570 electricity rationing regime. And in 2021, Sri 00:14:23.570 --> 00:14:26.009 Lanka faced an economic crisis so severe, they 00:14:26.009 --> 00:14:27.990 literally had to bring in the military to ration 00:14:27.990 --> 00:14:30.070 essential food supplies. Which brings us to a 00:14:30.070 --> 00:14:32.230 critical part of our discussion. Rationing isn't 00:14:32.230 --> 00:14:34.830 just about the past or distant countries. It's 00:14:34.830 --> 00:14:37.070 actively shaving our present and our future on 00:14:37.070 --> 00:14:39.889 a global scale. How so? Consider international 00:14:39.889 --> 00:14:43.200 refugee aid. Agencies like the World Food Program 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:46.559 operate on a strict rationing basis. They have 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:50.379 a target allocation of 2 ,100 calories per person 00:14:50.379 --> 00:14:53.519 per day for refugees. The grim reality of that 00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:55.879 2 ,100 calorie target is that it's an absolute 00:14:55.879 --> 00:14:58.279 bare minimum and in places like the camps in 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:01.110 Kenya. frequently can't even hit that. Exactly. 00:15:01.289 --> 00:15:03.409 The logistics of supplying those calories in 00:15:03.409 --> 00:15:06.289 crisis zones means that minimum standard is often 00:15:06.289 --> 00:15:09.070 aspirational. That's enough to hear. It is. But 00:15:09.070 --> 00:15:10.889 we should push even further out of our comfort 00:15:10.889 --> 00:15:13.149 zone to look at how rationing affects us right 00:15:13.149 --> 00:15:15.389 now in systems we might not even recognize as 00:15:15.389 --> 00:15:17.799 rationing. Let's talk about health care. I think 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:19.799 a lot of people assume that if you live in a 00:15:19.799 --> 00:15:21.820 wealthy, developed nation, you aren't dealing 00:15:21.820 --> 00:15:24.559 with healthcare rationing. But that preconception 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:27.700 is entirely false. Healthcare is rationed absolutely 00:15:27.700 --> 00:15:30.000 everywhere. Because the demand is basically infinite, 00:15:30.179 --> 00:15:32.600 right? Precisely. As the British Royal Commission 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:34.899 on the National Health Service noted way back 00:15:34.899 --> 00:15:38.220 in 1979, whatever a society spends on healthcare, 00:15:38.659 --> 00:15:41.440 the demand will always rise to meet and exceed 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:43.980 it. So it's never enough. The difference is simply 00:15:43.980 --> 00:15:46.450 in how it's rationed. In countries where the 00:15:46.450 --> 00:15:48.649 government provides health care, the rationing 00:15:48.649 --> 00:15:51.970 is explicit. There are wait lists or certain 00:15:51.970 --> 00:15:54.110 experimental treatments are simply not covered 00:15:54.110 --> 00:15:56.570 by the state. And in places like the United States, 00:15:56.970 --> 00:15:59.690 it's still rationed, but the mechanism is completely 00:15:59.690 --> 00:16:01.529 different. It's rationed by the market. It's 00:16:01.529 --> 00:16:04.669 rationed by a lack of personal funds or by the 00:16:04.669 --> 00:16:06.990 coverage decisions made by private insurance 00:16:06.990 --> 00:16:10.450 companies. The U .S. Supreme Court actually approved 00:16:10.450 --> 00:16:12.950 paying doctors with incentives to ration care. 00:16:13.149 --> 00:16:15.830 They stated there must be some incentive connecting 00:16:15.830 --> 00:16:18.750 physician reward with treatment rationing. And 00:16:18.750 --> 00:16:21.070 then you have physical limits that no amount 00:16:21.070 --> 00:16:24.149 of money or insurance can bypass. A shortage 00:16:24.149 --> 00:16:27.210 of organs for donation naturally forces transplant 00:16:27.210 --> 00:16:28.909 ration. That's a heart limit. It doesn't matter 00:16:28.909 --> 00:16:31.450 how much funding a patient has. If the organ 00:16:31.450 --> 00:16:34.389 isn't there, a board has to decide who gets it 00:16:34.389 --> 00:16:37.769 based on medical viability and need. It's a profound 00:16:37.769 --> 00:16:40.629 realization. And as we look to the future, we're 00:16:40.629 --> 00:16:43.350 seeing proposals for completely new types of 00:16:43.350 --> 00:16:46.730 rationing, specifically carbon rationing. Personal 00:16:46.730 --> 00:16:49.850 carbon trading. Yes, there's a proposed system 00:16:49.850 --> 00:16:52.549 called personal carbon trading. I remember reading 00:16:52.549 --> 00:16:55.309 about this in the source material. How exactly 00:16:55.309 --> 00:16:57.909 would that play out for the average person? Under 00:16:57.909 --> 00:17:00.549 this proposed system, it would be mandatory. 00:17:01.269 --> 00:17:04.309 Every adult individual in a nation would be allocated 00:17:04.309 --> 00:17:07.230 an equal per capita allowance of emissions credits. 00:17:07.890 --> 00:17:09.809 You'd have to surrender these credits every time 00:17:09.809 --> 00:17:12.549 you purchase fuel or electricity. So if I commute 00:17:12.549 --> 00:17:15.990 an hour to work every day in a gas car and use 00:17:15.990 --> 00:17:17.869 up all my credits, but you work from home and 00:17:17.869 --> 00:17:20.230 ride a bike, you'd have surplus credits left 00:17:20.230 --> 00:17:22.569 over. Right. And that's where the trading aspect 00:17:22.569 --> 00:17:25.329 comes in. If you want to emit above your initial 00:17:25.329 --> 00:17:28.529 allocation, you have to buy additional credits 00:17:28.529 --> 00:17:30.710 from someone else. From someone like you. Exactly. 00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:33.500 If you emit below your allocation, you can sell 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:36.700 your surplus. It essentially turns every individual 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:39.500 citizen into a carbon broker within a national 00:17:39.500 --> 00:17:41.619 carbon budget. If we connect this to the bigger 00:17:41.619 --> 00:17:44.160 picture... If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:17:44.500 --> 00:17:46.440 whether we're talking about allocating transplant 00:17:46.440 --> 00:17:48.839 organs, distributing electricity in Venezuela, 00:17:49.339 --> 00:17:52.519 or proposing carbon credits, rationing algorithms 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:55.480 are essentially trying to solve complex societal 00:17:55.480 --> 00:17:57.559 bankruptcy problems. There's just not enough 00:17:57.559 --> 00:17:59.720 to go around. When there aren't enough resources 00:17:59.720 --> 00:18:02.859 to honor everyone's claim, a society has to decide 00:18:02.859 --> 00:18:06.200 mathematically and morally who gets what. So 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:08.680 essentially these algorithms are just modern 00:18:08.680 --> 00:18:12.160 society's way of playing God. with a limited 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:14.980 budget. In a way, yes. We've covered a massive 00:18:14.980 --> 00:18:17.440 amount of ground today. We've seen that rationing 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:20.859 is far more than a wartime memory. It's a fundamental 00:18:20.859 --> 00:18:23.460 ongoing economic tool for dealing with scarcity. 00:18:23.740 --> 00:18:26.039 It's a constant presence. And more than that, 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:28.259 it reveals the society's deepest priorities, 00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:31.269 its inequalities, and its true values. So the 00:18:31.269 --> 00:18:33.589 next time you find yourself sitting in standstill 00:18:33.589 --> 00:18:36.089 highway traffic, getting frustrated, you can 00:18:36.089 --> 00:18:38.390 take a deep breath and realize you are actively 00:18:38.390 --> 00:18:41.289 participating in a non -price rationing queue. 00:18:41.650 --> 00:18:43.670 I'd like to leave you with one final detail from 00:18:43.670 --> 00:18:47.210 our sources to ponder on your own. Between 1976 00:18:47.210 --> 00:18:50.609 and 1989, the Polish People's Republic operated 00:18:50.609 --> 00:18:53.619 under a ration card system. But they had a catch. 00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:56.579 They had a unique legal loophole. If a citizen 00:18:56.579 --> 00:18:58.940 wanted to buy more food than their ration stamp 00:18:58.940 --> 00:19:01.400 explicitly allowed, they were legally permitted 00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:03.900 to do so. So they could just bypass it. The catch 00:19:03.900 --> 00:19:06.180 was they simply had to pay two and a half times 00:19:06.180 --> 00:19:09.039 the normal price for that extra food. I encourage 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:11.519 you to consider that mechanism. Does a system 00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:14.339 like that actually enforce fairness and ensure 00:19:14.339 --> 00:19:17.559 supply, or does it simply transform basic survival 00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:20.859 into a luxury tax for the wealthy? That's a phenomenal 00:19:20.859 --> 00:19:23.140 question to leave off on. Thank you so much for 00:19:23.140 --> 00:19:25.759 joining us on this deep dive. Keep looking closely 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:27.880 at the world around you. Keep questioning the 00:19:27.880 --> 00:19:30.519 hidden systems governing your daily life, and 00:19:30.519 --> 00:19:31.440 we'll catch you next time.