All:
For those of you who don't live in the VA/MD/DC area, we've been having a
drought for some time. The governments of MD and VA have recently imposed
water-use restrictions. This morning I heard on the news that the governor of VA
has declared that I can no longer water my lawn or wash my car with purchased
water; using saved rain or waste water for those purposes is allowed.
I've been around long enough that I've seen governments resort to rationing
and restrictions on use in several shortage instances, including those involving
electric power and petroleum product supplies. My father, who owned a grocery
store during World War II, told stories about commodity rationing during that
period. It appears to me that price rationing is not allowed, unless the
situation becomes permanent. Why is this? As it happens consistently, it must
be the will of the people. The interesting question is "Why?"
Among this group, I don't have to review the advantages of price rationing
that all of you could list right off the cuff. However, nonprice rationing must
be popular among noneconomists. Is it so because everyone feels better
perceiving that her neighbor has to bear some pain of the shortage, too? Does
the political popularity arise from the feeling of shared burden? With price
rationing, those with lower incomes who perceive that they have to cut down on
their consumption more, grumble that the rich still get to water their lawns. No
matter that the rich are paying the higher price, too � that is not perceived as
so much of a sacrifice as doing without.
What do you think?
Asa Janney
--
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree.
And stood awhile in thought.
-- Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky
