Manufactured scarcity and disposability sustain value by regulating perceived demand
Evidence
Scarcity is manufactured to sustain value through the artiļ¬ce of desirability. 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 itās 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 conļ¬agration, ensuring the former before the tinderbox of smoldering dreams ignites into incendiary nightmares. ā David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1879
Categorization
- CANDY: The mechanism that deliberately engineered scarcity keeps people valued is a compact, shareable thought about labor and consumer markets.
- XREF: connects to: Scarcity is deliberately manufactured to sustain perceived value. ā David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections onā¦, 1879; Disposability writes off people as depreciated consumption goods via group massification ā David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections onā¦, 1881; Manufactured scarcity and disposability govern racialized populations by timing need ā David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections onā¦, 1879 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Scarcity is deliberately manufactured to sustain perceived value.
#corroborates(0.95) ā David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1879 - Manufactured scarcity and disposability govern racialized populations by timing need
#expands(0.85) ā David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1879 - Disposability writes off people as depreciated consumption goods via group massification
#expands(0.80) ā David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1881