An Artificially Scarce Good An artificially scarce good is excludable and nonrival in consumption. It is made artificially scarce because producers charge a positive price, but the marginal cost of allowing one more person to consume the good is zero. In this example, the market price of an on-demand movie is $4 and the quantity demanded at that price is QMKT. But the efficient level of consumption is QOPT, the quantity demanded when the price is zero. The efficient quantity, QOPT, exceeds the quantity demanded in an unregulated market, QMKT. The shaded area represents the loss in total surplus from charging a price of $4.