Need to read up on that. I'd assume you'd get your allotment in form of a token, which you could trade for something else if you didn't need it. While this wouldn't solve the problem of the price gougers, it would at least ensure a baseline minimum for everyone.
> Speculators don't profit if they don't make it available.
Speculators profit best when they make it available at the point when they can command the highest price, not at the point where it could do most good to mitigate the crisis that's driving the prices up.
Black market gasoline was illegal, but of course that didn't stop a black market from happening, and at much higher prices than the market price would have been.
> Speculators profit best when they make it available at the point when they can command the highest price, not at the point where it could do most good to mitigate the crisis that's driving the prices up.
Those two points are the same.
You could, but that would be a mistake.
Consider gas rationing. Everyone gets 5 gallons. But everyone's utility for gas is different. Some need 10 gallons, some need 1 gallon. This reduces availability of gas, because the 1 gallon person is going to hoard the extra 4 "just in case".
Don't believe me? Check out gas rationing in the US in WW2.
Letting the price float means gas is reallocated from the least useful to the most useful uses, effectively increasing the supposedly "fixed" supply. (Hoarding is the least useful of the least useful uses, even if you're just hoarding the part of your ration you don't need.)
As for the Soviet Union, it was notorious for housing shortages. I bet if the supply of air raid shelters had been tested in an emergency, you and I both know it would be insufficient for those who weren't Party members.
> speculators hoard all the supply and make it unavailable
Speculators don't profit if they don't make it available.