Was the US cheap during WWII?

It had nothing to do with the U.S. being cheap or there being a shortage of stars. During 1942 and 1943 the Army did a series of studies of the effectiveness of aircraft markings. They determined that all roundels looked the same beyond six hundred yards. They also learned that a balanced presentation of roundels (i.e, on both wings, top and bottom surfaces) could be distinguished from an unbalanced presentation (i.e., top left and bottom right) at distances considerably greater than six hundred yards. This also led to the adding of the white crossbar to the national insignia in 1943.

Thanks for the possible official explanation. BTW, my question was veiled in a humorous tone. I was 4 years and 2 days old on the "Day of Infamy". I don't remember if I heard about it the time. I do remember hearing about the German Vengeance weapons falling on England, and feared they would begin falling on the US. I also feared a German invasion of the US, but since I have a German last name, I figured they wouldn't kill us. Hey! I was 6 years old at the time. :-)

It showed trough the war, that other markings vere more efficient. yellow noses and wingtips on axis planes in Russia, white wingtips and fuselage band in Africa. Yellow front on British wings in Europe and Japanese wings in the Far East. Invasion striping, id markings on early Typhoons and the German "Papagai Stafel" and many more examples.

It all indicates that regular national markings vere not good enough. The asymetrical approach was one way of dealing with it.