Thomas A Benigno
Former congressional candidate and business person.
Tracy, CA -Many who were around in the 40′s probably remember the OPA and price freezing during World War 2. It was simple. All items sold were either on rationing or all goods and service prices were frozen.
The war effort needed money to fight the war that began on December 7th 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Many things occurred during that period. One of the most important was to raise money to fight the war. The government started to sell defense bonds as they were called in those days. Scrap drives such as metal, rubber, and even silk stockings plus many other items were collected.
To buy gas, shoes, sugar, coffee, and so on, you had to have stamps, so many stamps for the value of the products. Gas, tires, new farm equipment, cars and trucks were not sold without hardship orders from the government allowing those purchases.
That is just a little of what happened in those days. I recently wrote a story about the price freezing that should have occurred at the start of the Iraq war. The same process would have saved us billions of dollars. Some ask how it worked in the WW 2?
It was that most military equipment that was built had certain price and completion standards. To build airplanes, it was a simple process to build thousands of planes. Ships were usually built by Kaiser and had a time limit and price limit that was set to make sure enough ships were built.
Unlike the last 10 years, the cost of building the war machinery was to costly and out of hand for the economy. At the beginning of the invasion in Iraq, we only had two Scud missiles, then when the contracts were given out, the cost went up 600% over the original cost. This is the reasoning behind the price freezing issue in time of war, to stop military industrialists such as Kaiser, and Rockefellers who profit off of war then hide their earnings away in foundations, from the very same people who work for them. As did Halliburton and other corporations.
The old way to generate cash was selling WAR BONDS as they were called was a good way to generate capitol to help the war effort. They were even using Social Security money to fight WW 2.
Let’s be very positive about what wars are about and how they can break countries that fight those wars, as we have been doing for the last 12 years in IRAQ, Afghanistan & Pakistan. During WW 2 there was a saying NOT ONE PENNY FOR PEACE BUT BILLIONS FOR DEFENSE…
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