How gas rationing would work 

btw, the Russian gas shortage in Europe isn't the same gas that Americans are thinking about. American "gas" is a liquid

Your videos are always so fun to watch. I worked at a gas station in Santa Barbara in 1973. I understood the early chaos was brought on by people who normally only kept 1/4 to 1/2 a tank in the car switching to keeping their tank constantly full. It was much like the COVID Toilet Paper crisis. Great to see your channel growing.

Governments: Gents and gals, we've gotta reduce gas usage in America. What's the solution? Random Gov't worker: How about we undo the highway-focused development of people like Robert Moses and Ebeneezer Howard in favour of a new urbanist stance? Something like emphasizing mixed land use in businesses and retail parks, building upwards not outwards with a heavy focus on condos and flats, and giving whatever remaining gas there is to transit systems. We also need to expand transit systems because three mediocre transit systems in a city are better than one great one. *everyone stares blankly, blinking* Random Gov't worker 2: How about off/on fueling days? Governments: This man is a genius!

“Billions of coupons in the desert waiting to be destroyed” is my favorite Doors lyric

Well, here in Sri Lanka gas (I mean petrol and diesel) rationing started like a month ago, probably for the first time in history. Instead of the age old ration book or coupon systems, we have a government run mobile app, that scans a QR code. Every car is currently allowed to buy 20 liters per week while larger and smaller vehicle get some accordingly. They are making updates to the system to be able to register commercial vehicles that are used for special purposes and give them more fuel and would probably roll it out next month. This system would probably go on for another year or so till we restructure our debt and get the IMF bailout.

I feel like there’s more LSD in that laugh than pain.

WW2 gas rationing, at least in America, was more about tires than gasoline itself. It was still almost all natural rubber at the start of the war (which itself gave a huge boost to synthetics) and almost all the world's sources of natural rubber were controlled by Japan as of the end of 1941.

I think a gas card system could work, where each card had an ID number tied to a government ration account and the pump checks how many ration units you have left in your account and sets that as your max draw…but honestly the cashlike coupon system seems more inclusive of the poor, easier to trade or sell on the white market when you don’t need it, and is only slightly less convenient. Might be harder to get pumps to accept them automatically, but no harder than cash to process manually. It’s probably still the more elegant solution, even if the card might be more convenient for those who have stopped carrying cash.

We had a major flood here in BC Nov 2021, and non-essentials were limited to 30L per car per fill up to prevent and slow the panic buying and it mostly worked! Everyone just figured that everyone else was limited to about half of what they normally got and drove conservatively or just filled up more frequently but more spread out

Another great video on a topic I never knew I needed to know about but am happy I do now!

Great video! I like hearing about random semi-historical factoids that are novel to the internet! Thanks 😊

I am, never not, pretty-entertained by a Phil Edwards' video. If everything produced such expected just-above-unexpected results as Phil's videos, I would be pretty content with things.

Having worked for a major oil company during that gas crisis in the 70s, and currently driving a hybrid, gas rationing would probably drive more people to electric vehilces.

You get criminally low views for the quality of your work, Phil. Hoping to see you grow this channel more and more.

Phil, I just wanna say after watching all my "doom-and-gloom" videos. You come on. It's like opening the window in a stuffy house. I smile then laugh at your bad jokes, it's just what I need. And at the same time I learn somthing. Phil, thank you.

That guy’s laugh is genuinely horrifying. I hope he is doing better now.

Looks like Sri Lanka now

I'd love to have a conversation with Laughing Guy and see what he makes of the world today.

Great video, a topic that's relevant to everyone in this age unfortunately and something that people are not as versed in. As someone who lives right next to Germany, a country where saunas are now temporarily banned from operating due to gas scarcity, this video hits close to home.

After getting bank cards recently for Healthcare expenses, one to get paid for a DHHS medical research study, and another card just to get a small student tuition refund, I think it would be trivial for the government to mail out a credit card for every household that could be loaded with cash and only be used to purchase a certain number of gallons of gasoline per day. The payflex card even knows if what you're buying is Healthcare related automatically!

in Germany (West) they did days where only essential car drivers where allowed to drive (on Sunday's) the police controlled, like the Autobahn etc., that make a lot of bicycles use the Autobahn. btw: wasn't there a case where someone stole pages form the NYC library rare book collection to sell them? something like that I would think would be a worthwhile video, wouldn't? or their hotline for questions etc. other unique archives or Library, museums and collections.

On the question at the end, I think the system is simple enough for rationing, the only issue is we'd have to treat it like money with countermeasures for people just photoshopping their own and printing their own rationing stamps.

Europeans: Americans and Canadians call Petrol simply “Gas”, that’s what he’s talking about. Americans and Canadians: when Europeans talk about “gas”, they mean natural gas.

Thanks for always making such high-quality videos!

i have a tough time watching something for longer than 3 minutes. but your videos are actually really easy to watch

Loving the videos Phil! Leave Vox and go full time like Cleo. Much love -Another Phil

Another fascinating video. So glad I found your channel!

Lol I was just on your channel looking for the biweekly video, yesterday and here we are.

Interesting topic, but let's not confuse "American gas" and "European gas". Gas in the US is "car fuel", by "gas" in Europe we mean natural gas, used for cooking/heating/electricity production. When we talk about possible gas rationing in Europe next winter, we are talking about natural gas.

The problem is that you often end up with a two-tier system, those with the financial means to get around the rationing, legally or illegally, and those without. You see it with odd-even restrictions in congested cities, those that can afford it buy two cars with different parity plates or buy a swish apartment closer in, those that can't are then disadvantaged, they spend more time commuting, they have to curtail their leisure activities, move into denser housing with less space, or they may even have to give up their job or lose out on recruitment to someone who is able to be more reliable. In the case here, EV's present one potential cause of a two-tier system, and will probably be completely legal. A wealthy person can sell their ICE car and buy a high performance EV, whereas a poor person is stuck with their ICE that they can't use as much, or can only afford a budget EV with limited range. This could have the same kind of effects on commuting time, employment, housing quality and access to leisure.

I've always wondered how people today would react to the kinds of rationing that occurred in the 1940s. And then COVID came around, and that sorta showed me that it wouldn't be pretty (which I honestly expected). Now, I'm convinced that if rationing were to ever come back, people would complain and call it communism.

Please keep the content coming!

Excellent music choices and sound design. Maybe the most polished vid I've seen from you

Petrol prices have been falling in the US? Damn in Australia it has NOT been falling, it's been rising

nice video, I really enjoy the work you are doing

These are so cool. Thanks Phil! Great videos, awesome stufff

Always informative, thank you Phil!

Gas in European English means natural gas, so the "gas shortage" is a different thing. (We call the car liquid petrol)

I think another issue for the US and some countries would be that there is not really alternatives to transportation for people in or outside cities.

Just leaving a comment because you're awesome.

The solution now is electric buses. If we can get just people in cities to take transit by making transit actually great like having dedicated bus lanes and buses that run every six minutes, we can aluminate a huge amount of gas usage which will free up gas for the people who actually need it

Always fascinating.

I really love the personal channel. Incredible quality videos for a smaller audience. feel like I'm in the VIP club

I’m new here and am loving your channel! Such great topics. I feel like the same stories are told over and over, but there are so many others we never hear. Thank you!

Rationing doesn't necessarily mean reducing consumption, it's redistributing the consumption to people who actually need it.

We had gas rations when I lived in the FRG in the '70s. I drove an economical VW Beetle.

Pain in that laughter? Nah… dude’s high as a satellite. :-p

How to ration gas to solve climate change? How about a cap and trade system? 1. Everyone with a driver's license has a DK number, so the government can create individual accounts using DMV info. 2. The government rations credits into ever driver's DL account, as needed. 3. Driver's swipe, scan, at pump or show DL to the cashier before fueling. 4. When credits reach zero, pump turns off. 5. Credits also redeemable on ride-sharing apps, airlines, and mass transit. 6. Government gradually reduces credits over time, forcing behavior change. 7. Angry people, happy planet.

You could probably use this to draw some conclusions on what may happen in areas of the world struggling with water availability

i imagine if gas rationing had to be done today, the government would follow the EBT model...basically a credit card

Love these videos. Always enjoy the Sunday posts; this is somewhat like a church, right?

The real solution to a fuel shortage would be to raise prices. Rationing makes the doctors and nurses wait in line along with the college students on break. The people in the government of course who print the ration cards can hand them out to their friends and family, government officials won't be subject to rationing and the artificially low price will not encourage extra production.

It's the government NO it's not gonna be updated. They'll be somebody wondering why all these newspaper delivery vehicles are running around with full tanks in 2223.

“Anybody who is capable to drill, go ahead and drill”. There that’s how… there is no reason we don’t do this already.

I remember growing up and seeing all the government ads offering public information. All you had to do was write the office in Pueblo, Colorado. It seemed then to be the repository of all human knowledge ;-)

What? A new Phil video? And it's not even my bday!! Hold on, I'm gonna grab a cup of coffee and get in my comfy chair to watch it proper!

we have an energy crisis in the UK atm with prices set to rise 400% this year... I wish they would ration based on need rather than on the ability to pay because millions will not be able to afford their bills come winter :(

Very interesting and good to think about in this day and age, thanks for making and vanilla coke yummm 😋

Gas Rationing wouldn't be that bad if North America didn't design their cities around the car. But in the great "Urban Renewal" experiment of the 60s/70s they designed the suburbs in a way where you have to drive 30mins just to buy a bag of milk.

I mean, we already have EBT cards that are fairly widely used to manage SNAP benefits, would something similar not work for rationing gasoline? They're compatible with many POS systems widely in use today at grocery stores, bodegas, convenience stores, etc.

I love your videos

Even if there isn't an oil shortage, we should just ration gas anyways to discourage driving and ease traffic.

East Germany had a huge reserve of a new currency to replace the old one in case of an extreme inflation

I found your take on contact tracing interesting. Were you not concerned about the privacy implications and what kind of precedent it was setting?

I think Phil made this video just so he could use the "laughing man" clip.

Great

I think a better title of the video might be "Why the U.S printed millions of gas coupons" or something like that. Idk though

Whoa, your videos are way underrated what's up with that? Cheers, keep it up.

On today's episode of what am I doing while watching your videos, Today I am cleaning the laundry which involves the kitty quarters and little presents where they shouldn't be 🎁

I don't think there will be major fuel shortages in the next decade or so, but electricity shortage seems very likely. It'd have huge consequences in a world that's gone half digital. Rationing solutions for electricity would be something more hi-tech than physical coupons. I'm not even sure how it could be implemented on current electrical infrastructure.

I’ve been wondering a lot lately how different America would look today if Eisenhower had pushed for massive rail expansion instead of the interstate system.

Man if only we weren't so car dependent as a culture/country. :(

I think the dismissal of a digital solution is based solely on the US experience of the pandemic. Other countries did far better when it came to digital contact tracing, online booking of vaccine appointments etc. and may be willing to embark upon a digital approach to ration coupons. It'd certainly be cheaper to woosh a fresh coupon onto a person's smartphone than to print and handout physical tokens. The handing out in particular would be labour intensive.

These days it would either be app-based or use camera's to scan your license plate and check your gas allowance in a central database.

Honestly it sounds like that plan they had was not too bad. I do wonder if with significantly better technology there would be a more simple way of distribution. For instance if we could get everyone to download an app that they would scan before getting gas (that you signed into with your driver's license, or something. That might be a challenge) it might actually be pretty simple to keep track of gas purchases and consumption for individuals. However we'd probably have people complaining about government overreach just like we had during COVID. Another difficulty about utilizing technology is ensuring that everyone could have access to it. The nice thing about those physical cards is that they would be much easier to distribute to lower income families who would honestly be affected most by gas shortages. At the end of the day sometimes not involving technology might be the surest solution. Interesting thoughts, thanks for the vid!

Ohh a movie about robbing the gas coupons to sell on the black market

My heart dropped when I thought about the white market implications of this in today's world 😮

Odd numbers seems the most logical to me, no need to print anything or do anything more than check the number plates coming in, which can work with ANPR

0:55 😆🍻

If the world is still around in 10 years, my bet is on electrification of cars and we ditch fossil fuels.

The problem with gas rationing is implementing a solution that would be virtually fail proof would be difficult cuz you couldn't rely on a virtual way of rationing gas you would have to give some physical media to people that either gas pumps would have to be able to accept and dispense a certain amount of gas and probably still charge for it or you might even have to go into the gas station and pay up front for the specific number of units of gas that you are trying to get the other problem is if we went into gas rationing for people like me I'm a full-time Rideshare driver giving passenger rides so I would need the Rideshare company I'm working for to require the people who are getting rides to a lot me some of their gas rations as well so that way I could continue to keep putting gas in my car so that way I could keep driving those people around if we did a physical media gas ration ticket like we did for the example you showed for World War II I would essentially have to require that people handed me a ration coupon before I could start the trip with them and hopefully each ration coupon is not for a full gallon more like a quarter of a gallon or a third of a gallon or a half of a gallon but in order for that to work for us Rideshare drivers we would have to start telling the Rideshare companies are odometer readings and how much gas we put in to fill up the tank of the car every time so they could work out a fuel economy so they could require the proper amount of gas rations for a net gain but they would have to base that average on the worst fuel economy car in the fleet in the area cuz it may not be me showing up in a Toyota Prius it could be somebody showing up in a Jeep or even a Toyota Land Cruiser that's getting a measly 13 miles per gallon instead of my 40 plus mile per gallon car but the amount of gas rations exchanged would have to be something determined by the Rideshare company so that way when people go and order rides they could be told how much of their rations they would have to be willing to trade to the company to then trade to us so that way we could keep gas in our cars to keep giving these people rides gas rationing would become a gigantic pain in the butt or at least if we did a physical media thing they could tell the people how much gas rations to give us it's kind of funny because probably having a Rideshare sticker in your windshield would allow you to free purchase gas just as long as you have the ration coupons where even if you did have the ration coupons some places might not be willing to dispense gas cuz it would probably be more of a logbook type thing as well so I could start getting stickers for Rideshare companies and selling them for big bucks for people who have the rations but just aren't being given the gas.

It would be nice if this video had comments from economists on the potential best way to deal with a shortage. My understanding is that they seem to favor market based solutions such as higher gas taxes to reduce consumption, but such measures are politically unpopular. Some of this could be offset via direct payments from the government-the high prices would then cause many people to find ways to conserve gas, but people could also afford it if necessary thanks to the government handout.

If they ever make a remake of ALF, you need to be Willie Tanner!

You know, cut 75% of our gas consumption, and triple ethanol production, and we'd probably survive all gasoline disappearing. Painful as all hell, don't get me wrong, and would probably need to do the same with biodiesel, but it wouldn't be any worse than WWII I don't think.

I'm kinda tired so I don't really have much to comment apart from the fact that I really enjoyed this brief analysis of the history of gas rationing in the US. Also just wanna give the algorithm a little nudge towards your channel

You already see the first stage of imposed gasoline rationing going on right now: price fluctuation. We won't see stronger measures (odd-even or debit cards or whatever) in this country until we're 1) in an openly-declared war posture (😬😬😬), ***AND*** 2) actually suffering national shortages. Think Colonial Pipeline x 10, or, maybe, shipping a lot of refined product out of the country (to support an ally or occupy a country or whatever); that's the sort of environment we'd have to be in. The US doesn't have a gasoline supply problem. Not any more. But it's an interesting historical topic (because I was there, man, in '79! I love this stuff!) and just always fascinating to think about how to manage societal behavior. 👍👍👍

Indonesia have this app that rationing fuel that get subsidized by goverment

How much money is wasted by the gov every year on ideas that might help but fall short the mark some would have been great ideas an others what was they thinking any time there is a control on something the cost to maintain that control is 10+ times more expensive

Neat

What goes around comes around.

I thought this was a new video and the shave the moustache vote won! 😱

Jam band economics?

I do wonder how drivers with electric cars would fit into the mix with a gas ration.

You don't need rationing, just sensible vehicles.

Don’t temp Murphy’s law 😅

If only we didn't have an administration trying to kneecap our energy production at every turn :(

By the time any of this would be an issue most of us will be driving electric cars or hybrids, so it kind of doesn’t really matter for the future imo. Still interesting video.

Even now they're making it unnecessarily harder to get gasoline, so I wouldn't put it past them to overly ration it. Let's face it, they want the reliable petroleum cars gone, in favor of electric ticking-timebombs of which the electrical grids can't take the strain of.

Rationing is best way to make sure nobody gets anything.

It was about tires, not gasoline. Really enjoy the channel though!