The Spiral Economy

[SnuggleSnail]

Subservient mentality.
The things you were buying had an artificially inflated value because they were qualities you could never hope to obtain without spiraling, and spiraling was out of reach of all but the most autistic of the autists.

You can just be the one who makes highQ metal stuff now. If progressing your own industry is undesireable, trading for highQ stuff will be more reasonable now since there won't be such entrenched monopolies.