[acka]

> Why would it plunge instead of re-focusing on things that are intrinsically important?

Because a lot of the economy is focused on creating and maintaining a surplus[1]: make people buy things that they don't really need, make them discard and replace things that they've been convinced are no longer worth it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus%3A_Terrorized_into_Bei...

[geysersam]

That's the current state yes. But that doesn't mean it's the only possible state. If that wasteful consumption disappear, would anyone be worse off? Hardly. But it would free up capacity to do more actually useful and valuable things. Sounds like a win to me.