I was digging through a crate of great-grandfatherly belongings and found a few relics from the last time our country was even deeper in the shitter. I came across a collection of four 'War Ration Books' all in a nice 'Tip-Top War Ration Book Cover'. These books were given out from 1942 to 1944 to "guarantee your fair share of goods made scarce by war". Used for rationing as well as subsidizing commodities, you could get your sugar, flour, fruit cocktail, or even a pair of shoes from Sears with the stamps. Seeing that 1 in 8 now receive food stamps and America is waste deep in endless wars, I find these stamps quite relevant.
These books were not just given out for the well-being of America's subjects though; they had a nice bit of self interest and propaganda thrown in as well. During the same time these booklets were being distributed, there was a push for the public to donate vital resources to the war effort. Certain metals, nylon, rubber, and even cooking fats. (Check the bottom of pic #4 above)
The metals were said to build tanks and planes, unfortunately only pure metals could be used rendering Grandma's donated pots, pans, and cocktail shaker to be made into brand new metal cookware. Cooking oil was also said to be in high demand by our boys over sea. Fat makes Glycerine, and Glycerine makes bombs. Unfortunately only a small amount of Glycerine is needed in the process so it is assumed the collective fats were buried in landfills. Interestingly, the push to donate fats was in most part by the soap industry as shown in their sensational newsprint ads. Collecting rubber was actually the most legitimate salvage drive. Almost 90% of the US rubber supply was coming from Southeast Asia and Japan had effectively cutoff the supply lines. Nonetheless, in the end, there was enough rubber reserves to win the war without the drives.
Although millions of pounds of resources were gathered and many were put towards the war effort, the economics of the operation did not make sense. Too much of what was collected could not be used or was in such large amounts could not be effectively distributed to be reused. What did make sense was the extreme show of patriotism and support for the war it created. People felt like they were giving all they could to win overseas even though they were probably throwing there money away.
Beyond the desired patriotic affect of the drives, people were still hungry and unemployed. Patriotism certainly didn't solve that problem. The stamp books were handed out to not only ration but feed and cloth millions of downtrodden Americans. Along with this stimulus came a crazy bureaucracy to keep it in order. A point system was developed and was reported everyday in the newspaper. It ended up looking like a modern day sports section.
