[Figment]

So NJ Gov Chris Christie has just announced a form of gasoline rationing of odd and even buying days. At the same time he is prosecuting merchants for raising prices in response to the shortages; and I am sure this is very popular there: ‘ Proscecute those greedy capitalists because price gouging is unfair’ I can imagine them saying.

Under the circumstances, could you blame a station owner who just shuts down to avoid the hassle?

[1010RD]

Christie’s channeling Carter or maybe Obama rubbed off on him. These stupid Eastern Publicans.

[Alberta's Child]

As an FYI ... the "rationing" you've described here isn't really a true rationing process. The purpose of this measure is to eliminate the long lines and the related law enforcement problems, not "ration" gasoline by limiting how much fuel customers can buy. If a gas station has 10,000 gallons of fuel in its tanks it is going to sell every drop of that fuel no matter who shows up or how much they buy.

The odd/even restriction is basically an acknowledgement that it makes no sense to have 200 cars on line at a gas station if there is only going to be enough fuel for the first 100 of them even under the best of circumstances. This restriction basically just tells half of the motorists on that line to come back tomorrow.