Yea, it's an emotional concept that seems to mean things cost more than somebody was expecting. You could say there's a shortage of anything you like, so it's a

Yea, it's an emotional concept that seems to mean things cost more than somebody was expecting. You could say there's a shortage of anything you like, so it's a meaningless word. There's a shortage of helicopters because lots of people want them but don't want to pay the high price they currently have. There's a shortage of petrol because if it was much cheaper, I'd be running a generator to power my house. I want that cheap petrol but there isn't enough for the price to be so low.