They can cheat..."
As with price control issues, the mostly volunteer bureaucracy of local war price rationing boards had their hands full looking after the OPA program that had endless opportunities to cheat. OPA officials acknowledged the reality that they were at the mercy of the good will of the consumer: "Our rationing system can be made to work with simplicity and fairness if all Americans everywhere will cooperate and use their ration stamps properly. They can cheat -- it is always possible to cheat on any set of rules. But do Americans want to? Do they want this system designed to be fair to all, to become a useless farce?"(6)
Officials published a long list of violations related to how ration books were used, all the while trying to combat a pervasive rationalization that said "I know I shouldn't do this, but I guess just this once won't ruin the country...." The list of transgressions included trying to make purchases with loose stamps. These could have been lost or stolen and OPA regulations said that the retailer was forbidden to accept them. Lending a ration book to a friend was also a violation. The official reasoning was that some people who ate frequently at restaurants and didn't need all of their stamps often gave them to friends who would then "be getting double their fair share. This kind of neighborliness must be foregone for the duration." The solution? The frequent diners were expected to destroy any extra ration stamps instead--an unlikely option.(7)