It's a vicious circle that pivots on "always low prices". I believe people in general would make better decisions if the actual costs were visible at the decision point (checkouts), and if they were paid (UBI) to be useful to their place/each other. Our system is based on millennia old belief in fanatically competitive colonialism extraction profiteering, but as entrenched as it is, it is still a belief system that we follow without question (evil) because it is more comfortable and 'efficient' than not following it. "Efficiency is the straightest road to Hell." -JH Kunstler