There's some nuance here because the reason this logic works is that labor is special (to me at least) because measures to forcibly reduce the cost of labor increase human suffering. But for basically every other good prices being driven well beyond the norm (during normalish market conditions) is basically the definition of a shortage. It doesn't really matter if it's a "luxary" good or not (since that category is ill-defined anyway grumble grumble tampons).

If the price of milk shot up from $2/gal to $20/gal that's a shortage.

> If the price of milk shot up from $2/gal to $20/gal that's a shortage.

Erm, exactly?

If there were a real shortage, salaries would be going up. The fact that salaries aren't going up to counteract that "shortage" tells me that there really isn't one.

That is a perverse misreading of the original comment.

Calling a livable wage and fair working conditions a Lamborghini is not applicable.

I think the comment was comparing good post-doc researchers to Lamborghinis. Makes sense as the academic are not offering enough ($4000) for it to make sense.

In this metaphor, the postdoc is the Lamborghini, the speaker is the employer bemoaning the difficulty of acquiring a postdoc/Lamborghini for an unreasonable price point, and the $4000 is the unreasonable price point.

Good CS researches are in some sense the Lamborghinis of developers.