Rationing does nothing to increase the supply, and distributes the existing supply to people who don't need it. Rationing assumes everyone has exactly the same need, which is nonsense and leads to gross inefficiencies. Rationing inevitably leads to hoarding and a black market.
Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how you handle prices (or subsidies) along with the rationing.
>distributes the existing supply to people who don't need it.
A bit, but in the case of housing and food you can safely assume people all need it in about the same amounts. You will be wrong, but close enough. The black market might even by your friend in correcting some of your mistakes.
> Rationing assumes everyone has exactly the same need, which is nonsense and leads to gross inefficiencies.
yes and no. You don't have to assume the same needs. You can figure out rules. Families need more space - which can be used to encourage/discourage having kids depending on your goals. Overall it leads to inefficiencies I agree.
> Rationing inevitably leads to hoarding and a black market.
True or not based on how much trust there is in the ration plan. If people agree with the reasons and means there will be a lot less than if people disagree, or find they can't get even the minimum. WWII rationing in the US mostly worked from what I understand - people were proud to not use their entire ration of sugar, but there was overall enough food (including gardens) so it wasn't hard. That is probably the exception (and even then there was a black market!), but it does make the point.
> WWII rationing in the US mostly worked from what I understand
It suffered from all the faults I mentioned. The black market in gas was extensive, and even included drive by shootings. In public, people proudly supported rationing, in private, they sold their extra gas to people who needed it at black market prices. Yes, the government did try in their blundering manner to give different rations based on need, but it inevitably grossly mismatched supply with demand.
I've talked to people who lived through it, and there was certainly two economies going on - the ration one, and the black market one. For example, one lived on a farm that wasn't doing much, but got a big gas allocation because "farm". They made a mint selling it under the table.
> You can figure out rules.
Yeah, like the byzantine vaccine rules, along with the confusion and fights over it. Politicians moved themselves to the front of the line, naturally. Just like in WW2, politicians got all the gas they wanted.
Not to mention the 1942 Labor Stabilization Act[0] that led us the modern employer-provider health insurance situation (which isn't strictly rationing but is an example of well-intended market intervention/price controls being outsmarted by the market participants and casting an enormously long shadow over the country).
[0] Formal title is "An Act to Amend the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, to Aid in Preventing Inflation, and for Other Purposes"
