Manufactured scarcity and disposability govern racialized populations by timing need

Evidence

The more available something or someone, the less desirable, and so the less likely to be valued. If a consumer is kept waiting or wanting, even for no apparent reason, it must be made to seem like it’s due to competing demand or the failure of nature, human or otherwise. The point is to play the marginal utilities, to determine the moment just prior to diminishing returns. The supplement of production on demand is just in time delivery, recognizing the bounded moments between perceived need and desperate desire. Disposability is supposed to mediate between delivery and desperation, between invisibility and conflagration, ensuring the former before the tinderbox of smoldering dreams ignites into incendiary nightmares. New Orleans buffeted by Katrina. Parisian banlieue set alight. Gaza’s permanent nightmare, relief from which can only ever be temporary. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1879

Categorization

• XREF: ‘Disposability as mediation against conflagration’ is a governance mechanism that could generalize across axes — perpetual precariousness as a stabilizer rather than threat. — connects to: Manufactured scarcity and disposability sustain value by regulating perceived demand — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1879; Racialized unruly populations become targets of states of exception — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1750; Disposability writes off people as depreciated consumption goods via group massification — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1881

Broader Connections

• Racialized unruly populations become targets of states of exception #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1750
• Disposability writes off people as depreciated consumption goods via group massification #corroborates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1881