Artificial scarcity

Artificial scarcity describes the scarcity of items even though either the technology and production, or sharing capacity exists to create an abundance, as well as the use of private property laws to create scarcity where otherwise there would not be. The most common causes are monopoly pricing structures, such as those enabled by private property rights or by high fixed costs in a particular marketplace. The inefficiency associated with artificial scarcity is formally known as a deadweight loss.