Rationing: it's a word and an idea that people often loathe and fear. Health care expert Henry Aaron has compared mentioning the possibility of rationing to shouting an obscenity in church.' Yet societies in fact ration food, water, medical care and fuel all the time, with those who can pay the most getting the most. In Any Way You Slice It, Stan Cox shows that rationing is not just a quaint practice restricted to war memoirs. Instead, he persuasively argues that rationing is a vital concept for the fragile present in an era of dwindling resources and environmental crises.'