Yeah, I actually looked into the whole rationing thing several monthes ago, never having experienced it myself. During WWII, due to a rubber shortage, gasoline was rationed in the US using lettered stickers:
A: non-essential drivers 3-4 gallons per week
B: driving deemed essential to the war effort 8 gallons per week
C: indicated physicians, ministers, mail carriers and railroad workers
T: Truckers
X: Members of Congress and other VIPs (figures, par for the course, why should they have to suffer with the rest of us)
I could get by on zero gasoline. I have done it for extended periods before now. Same for electricity. It's not what I would think of as a hardship, just an inconvenience. Things were rationed in England, some food items. In Germany and Russia I don't know, I think everybody there was automatically in the war so there weren't many private options to begin with. Once we are mobilized for war, FedGov assumes total control. It is neccesary. The thing is, they have extended this necessity to relatively trivial things like the War on Poverty [started way before LBJ] and the War on Drugs [also started long ago].