Scarcity

1973 petroleum shortage

thumb|right|People queue up for soup and bread at relief tents in the aftermath of the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889 In economics, scarcity refers to the basic fact of life that there exists only a finite amount of human and nonhuman resources which the best technical knowledge is capable of using to produce only limited maximum amounts of each economic good. If the conditions of scarcity did not exist and an "infinite amount of every good could be produced or human wants fully satisfied ... there would be no economic goods, i.e. goods that are relatively scarce..." Scarcity is the limite

any payment to an owner or factor of production in excess of the costs needed to bring that factor into production

act of buying unusually large amounts of a product in anticipation of a shortage of supply or rapid increase in cost

thumb|Supply and demand, with market-clearing price shown 250px|thumbnail|right|Unemployed men queue outside a depression soup kitchen in United States during the Great Depression. 250px|thumbnail|right|A 2014 image of product shortages in Venezuela

measure of lost economic efficiency

Post-scarcity is a theoretical economic situation in which most goods can be produced in great abundance with minimal human labor, so that they become available to all very cheaply or even freely.

thumb|300x300px|Tape hoarding Hoarding is the act of engaging in excessive acquisition of items that are not needed or for which no space is available.

medical material and other goods shortages occurring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic

commerce phenomenon

centrally-planned economies with chronic shortages of various goods

human-made scarcity

economic concept

thumb|Stockout of dog food A stockout, or out-of-stock (OOS) event is an event that causes inventory to be exhausted. While out-of-stocks can occur along the entire supply chain, the most visible kind are retail out-of-stocks in the fast-moving consumer goods industry (e.g., sweets, diapers, fruits). Stockouts are the opposite of overstocks, where too much inventory is retained. A backorder is an order placed for an item which is out-of-stock and awaiting fulfillment.

practice of removing parts for repairing a similar machine

decline in oil production of a well, oil field, or geographic area