I've been thinking that maybe it would be for the greater good if these new restrictions on movement and buying due to coronavirus were made permanent. No more bars, restaurants, nightclubs, festivals, gatherings period. No more sporting events.
No more selling hot food, no more food deliveries. To go out of your home you need permission from the government, and that is only granted for necessities like getting food or medication. Most workplaces and all schools are shut down permanently, with everything being done online. Eventually education is outlawed except for what your family teaches you.
Rationing is VERY strict, each person only gets a set amount of food, clothing and hygiene purchases are limited to those who can present an item that has been completely used up. (I got this idea from WW2 USA rationing, where you had to turn in an empty tube of toothpaste to get a new one.) As for durable goods, you only get a new one when the old one is no longer repairable.
I've been researching rationing during WW2 in USA and UK, and the UK's system was far more rational. The US system had a problem with the amount of ration coupons needed to buy a certain item going up and down unpredictably, with the result that the housewife never knew from day to day if she could afford food. She had to keep TWO sets of ledgers, money and coupons, and the seeming randomness of the Office of Price Administration's announced prices/coupons made doing so quite difficult. In England foodstuffs were rationed by amount, with your ration cards being stamped to show that they had been used.
I think that strict rationing would finally destroy America's consumerism/materialism problem by equating wants with needs.
No more selling hot food, no more food deliveries. To go out of your home you need permission from the government, and that is only granted for necessities like getting food or medication. Most workplaces and all schools are shut down permanently, with everything being done online. Eventually education is outlawed except for what your family teaches you.
Rationing is VERY strict, each person only gets a set amount of food, clothing and hygiene purchases are limited to those who can present an item that has been completely used up. (I got this idea from WW2 USA rationing, where you had to turn in an empty tube of toothpaste to get a new one.) As for durable goods, you only get a new one when the old one is no longer repairable.
I've been researching rationing during WW2 in USA and UK, and the UK's system was far more rational. The US system had a problem with the amount of ration coupons needed to buy a certain item going up and down unpredictably, with the result that the housewife never knew from day to day if she could afford food. She had to keep TWO sets of ledgers, money and coupons, and the seeming randomness of the Office of Price Administration's announced prices/coupons made doing so quite difficult. In England foodstuffs were rationed by amount, with your ration cards being stamped to show that they had been used.
I think that strict rationing would finally destroy America's consumerism/materialism problem by equating wants with needs.
