You are conflating the concept of scarcity and shortage. They aren't the same thing. Scarcity = not everyone who wants something can have it. This means that s

You are conflating the concept of scarcity and shortage. They aren't the same thing. Scarcity = not everyone who wants something can have it. This means that some sort of rationing mechanism must be used (e.g. price) to distribute that thing. Shortage = the price of a good is $X but not everyone willing to pay $X will receive the good. Shortage is a market condition, usually a symptom of a broken market. Scarcity is just a fundamental fact of counting. It is not fair to say there is a shortage of Mercedes, but it is fair to say that Mercedes are a scarce resource.