"You can't help scarcity at all by fixing prices." Yes, you definitely can. The price which incurs maximum profits for producers has little to do with consume

"You can't help scarcity at all by fixing prices." Yes, you definitely can. The price which incurs maximum profits for producers has little to do with consumer surplus or the maximization thereof. Price fixing alters the distribution of surpluses one way or the other, because we don't measure consumer surplus directly, we often think of 'reduced profits' to the producer, but fail to regard the increased surpluses to consumers. The term 'scarcity' is a bit of canard, because very, very few things are actually truly 'scarce' like Gold, most things depend on labour inputs, materials, and especially opportunity cost. Vaccines are an example. Phizer could probably make a lot more profit by charging $150-500/vaccine in the USA, which might leave 65% of Americans in the lurch. But the surpluses to citizens arrived at through a 'not really market price' negotiated between the US Gov, and Phizer, are much more vast. Especially the moment you consider longer term effects (i.e. limited deployment of vaccine hurts the economy badly and thus other lines of revenue) you see the systematic effects.