Matt Ridley looks back for signs of when things might get back to normal.
Three years after the second world war ended, the government was still micromanaging the decisions of consumers. The reluctant withdrawal of the state from rationing (and the even longer persistence of price controls, wage controls, exchange controls and central planning generally) infuriated at least some of the British people, though much of the anger was, as now, directed at cheating rather than the rules.
The west suffered its death blow in 1918, finally bled out in the 1980s, and the maggots have been proliferating on its carcass since then, but, by all means, continue to beat the dead horse.
You ain’t seen nothing yet if the May 12 fuel closures occur.
I expect Propane at least 4X or much higher as Ontario has never seen an economic shock like this coming.
I made sure to have a couple of double electric burners. As electric may be far cheaper than fuel.
Also going to fill up my 5 gallon gas can with fresh fuel.
I suspect it could be quite a hectic time after.
Indeed. In my old age, I am increasingly of the opinion that even those who know history are doomed to repeat it, we just get the added joy of seeing it coming, and preparing for it to the best of our abilities.
Do tell.
What are these May 12 fuel closures about ?
As a positive thinker, I like this from the piece:
“Don’t just sit there, undo something’. This year, by happy coincidence, 20 June is also a Sunday and is the day before the date on which we were promised the abolition of all restrictions — before the backtracking began.
Erhard’s lesson is that the best way to bring in reforms is fast. The best way to get rid of rules is all at once. The best time to liberalise an economy is far sooner than the experts think you should. Who will make a new version of Passport to Pimlico, with a gleeful crowd in a pub tearing up vaccine passports in the face of a bossy policeman.”
P.S. The rationing in England after WW II was the underlining theme in the movie, “84 Charing Cross Road” with Anthony Hopkins and Ann Bancroft. The author, played by Bancroft, who lived in the U.S., sent life saving food parcels in the mail to people at a bookstore in England.
Hmm, I seem to recall a PBS TV series called ” The Darling Buds of May ” that dealt with that theme but with a more joyous slant.
But it was set in the late 40’s, early 50’s Great Britain.
Starred a young Catherine Zeta-Jones in all her youthful glory.
UK rationing went on until 1954. The British love queuing. The only ones better at taking orders are the Germans.
I had NO IDEA the Brits carried on with rationing until 1954!! … “cheese and meat in 1954”. How anti-Free Market can you get? I guess the Brits admired Stalin’s Basic Dictatorship, eh?
And that Cheese and Meat thing? You do KNOW the current crop of Dictators are coming for your meat? Soon, we will taxed for eating “the white man’s diet” that burdens the planet. The Dictators are coming … with their benevolent principles that are only for our own good. Right?
It should be noted that Churchill was put back in charge (after his humiliating 1945 defeat) … in large part because the command-Control Labor Party were making post-War life WORSE than when the Luftwaffe were bombing the shit out of England. It took Churchill-deux to END the rationing.
It’s more complicated than that. Europe was essentially starving to death in 1945. Far from just feeding itself, as one of the victors Britain had to contribute to providing food to France, Benelux, Germany, Italy, in all of which agriculture had completely disintegrated. The United States was making huge efforts to ship additional fertilizer to Europe. In fact it produced the second largest non-nuclear explosion in history in 1947.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fertilizer-explosion-kills-581-in-texas
As one of the victors, Britain had to do its part to preserve its status with the United States.
What was also a factor was that the British Prime Minister was Clement Attlee, with a ruling Labour Party government. This was the closest Britain has ever been to a Communist government.
Britain has AlWAYS had far more COMMUNISTS within than most think….Lots n Lots of em.
With the Oxford and Cambridge being prime training grounds for them.
The British under Labour had rationing until 1954. And they won the war?
The Germans had enough of socialism and with their infrastructure destroyed couldn’t afford a repeat so had to go free market and so could end rationing before Britain. I am always amused at the contradiction.
It will be interesting to see how long Trudeau’s socialist recovery plan will take, but I probably only have twenty years left so will not see it.
I am sure behavioral scientists will be studying these events for decades.
What percentage of the population were obedient or non compliant? How did fear and peer pressure work so well? How many people were willing to snitch on their neighbors and how does this affect socisl trust/cohesion ? How many rich, powerful people were revealed to be megalomaniacs and control freaks? How much damage does social isolation inflicton on young people? What is the breaking point for society with regards to rules affecting livelihoods and mental health? And many, many more questions .
I am surprised at many things that have been accepted without pushback so I guess that the prolonging of WW2 rationing follows the pattern.
The Nextdoor website/app will provide a lot of that type of info with respect to public shaming via social media. I saw plenty of posts this time last year from people in my vicinity freaking out and ready to call the cops because someone was walking down the street without a mask on. Heaven forbid you quickly passed someone on the sidewalk without properly distancing. I remember a memorable one in which someone complained of *gasp* someone else sitting in their own backyard more than a hundred feet away from the person complaining, but the latter had been diagnosed with Covid so they had no right being outside at all.
From what I saw, the people most likely to do the public shaming/complaining were able to stay at home because they were one or more of retired, at risk, with guaranteed incomes, and/or could work from home. I’m still seeing it elsewhere on social media/discussion sites where people still think if you travel or go anywhere without a mask you’re a terrible human being, not to mention if you don’t plan on getting a vaccine.
Covid will never cease to be used as an excuse to enforce certain “norms” and there are plenty of people happy to follow along and demand others do so.
I live in a rural area and most people are employed in agriculture or blue collar work with a few professionals in education and healthcare. Not much nagging and shaming around here. Everyone tends to be very relaxed. Only one incident at the local grocery store and the complainer was the one going the wrong way which was mildly amusing.
It feels very different when I go to the city. There’s many more uptight, angry and rude people in general. But even there I am finding a change in covid rule following. Less compliance with floor arrows, distancing, hand sanitizers and so forth. The fear factor seems to be subsiding.
The concept of one-way aisles is SO frigging stupid. I don’t see much compliance with that but I do see more people lining up to sanitize themselves when they enter AND leave the grocery store.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Commission
Read between the lines and realize that it still exists.
I lived under rationing during my formative years and still have a skin condition brought on by food shortages. We had kept four dozen rabbits to supplement our meat ration and to supply my father’s restaurant. We (my family of five) left England bound for Canada in 1954 with the $300 we were allowed to take from the country. We had to hit the ground running. Even years later we got letters from relatives decrying shortages – an aunt wrote “we are short of toilet paper, write often and on soft paper”.
Things “might” get back to normal? Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Get used to it, folks. Life as we were accustomed to ended more than a year ago.
The government has learned that it can get away with all sorts of things. All it has to do is to claim whatever it enacts is an “emergency measure” and will ensure that the “emergency” continues. Actual physical evidence of dire conditions are no longer necessary, only the word of the authorities.
One of the objectives is to make us into a collective hive. The ubiquitous face diapers serve only one purpose: to anonymize us, though the government has its ways of telling who’s who, and that, of course, is the only thing that’s important to it. First we lose our individual identities. Soon we’ll see people becoming un-persons or being “disappeared” without anyone really noticing.
Canada’s back, indeed–back the way that our communist masters always wanted.
I’m afraid you’re right, B A.
My wife and I had a friend over for Superbowl waaaay back in February and we each gave our prediction for when things would return to normal. My friend said by April 1st everything would be open again at full capacity and masks would no longer be mandatory by July 1st. My wife thought everything would be back to normal by July 1st and that masks would be discretionary based on wide-spread vaccination. She also thought health passports might be issued as proof of being vaccinated.
I said that businesses would be open but all the current measures such as masks, social distancing would still be in place by the end of the year. I thought vaccine passports would be issued and also said the Canada/US border would still be closed except for essential traffic.
Here’s the rub…I have always been a “cup is half-full” person but this past year has changed my belief system completely. It still boggles my mind how fast everything changed.
Britain elected Labour in 1945. And they were shocked by the results?
history has taught us the obvious.
Government creates nothing,except chaos and destruction.
The idea that government control leads to prosperity is a malicious lie and history provides endless examples..
Trump being the most recent,his policy of cutting regulation started an economic boom,upsetting all of the parasitic overload,who derive their power by crippling the productive and extorting those who create wealth.
When the Marching Morons proclaim “Good Government” and “Investing in our future” via government debt..here you can truly appreciate the “value” of public education.
What Mr. Ridley fails to mention was the Labour vote of 1945 led to the massive emmigration from the British Isles of the ‘working class’ over the next decade, those individuals that knew hard work and incentive was under attack and decided that they would be the ones to pay for the Labour promises. As a result of the loss of the industrious skilled working class the British economy stalled. Indeed the British economy, despite what you have been led to believe, never really recovered.
When my great aunt died in 1964 I remember my parents help clear out her apartment. In her dresser in a locked metal box were left WW II ration books for sugar, flour, eggs and meat. Being young and stupid I commented “Why would she have kept those?”. My Dad said “in case of another war and if the Bolsheviki come over”. It was my first conscious inkling of the survival mentality of Eastern Europeans. My grands had left Ukraine before the revolution but heard stories and knew stories of people and family who survived through the revolution and the wars. Tough people did what was necessary to survive. Today, people bitch if Netflix or farcebook are down. They will melt in the coming decline if it is allowed to happen.
I don’t know if people will melt.
When you are starving you will do some extraordinary things to get sustenance.
You’d be surprised what some people are capable of.
there are 2 types of politicians, crooks, and stupid crooks. So we will see very little change from our current situation, until we, the voters force the issue.
Voting won’t change a bloody thing.
Only pitch forks and rope will.
I highly recommend BBC’s “Wartime Farm,” which explores life on a farm in the U.K. during WW II, including the rationing. Fascinating stuff, especially the demands of the various Ministries (Agriculture, Food, Information, Labour) and the tight grip they held on the farms.
(Also recommend “Victorian Farm” and “Edwardian Farm.”)
Making it impossible for the productive classes of the west to make a living, and forcing them to sell the means of production at a heavy discount to Chinese “investors,” is not a side effect of the lockdowns.
They are the goal of the lockdowns.
Amy western government serious about seeing their countries recover from Wuhan flu hysteria would end all lockdowns tomorrow morning and order all government employees back to work that morning on pain of termination.