Are you agreeing with your own narrative or are you explaining what people will do when profit is the economy's primary directive?
"Cheaper" also includes slave labor which is how some metals are mined.
How 'modern-day slavery' in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara
However, people could actually live a sustainable lifestyle that would use the available metals already in circulation (e.g., by using private vehicles as salvage & a public transport system << vast reduction in resources and power requirements). https://qoto.org/@Empiricism_Reloaded/110511036586999020
There is a distinct difference between those of us that want to walk the sustainability walk and those that are simply full of talk. Many are the latter.
