alt Hacker News> There is no way to get around treating unskilled workers in this industry as expendables - even safety gear can destroy the margins in this industry.
Actually, there is. The way is called tariffs - an instrument to offset externalities like environment and labor protection dumping.
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Hypothetically yes, but in 2025 it is impossible to do so on critical minerals/REEs.
The entire processing chain's IP and production capacity is in Asia. Even in South Korea and Japan, workers in these industries are given third world safety protections with temp workers imported from Vietnam, Indonesia, and poorer areas of China, as was seen with the Hwaseong battery factory fire a couple months ago [0][1]
Throwing environmental and workers rights tariffs on REEs and e-waste processing means the upstream supply chain for the entirety of electronics, automotive, aerospace, and every other manufacturing industry is ground to a halt, and you have to depend on foreign countries anyhow but with even less leverage.
[0] - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/24/world/asia/lithium-batter...
[1] - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/world/asia/south-korea-li...
They will also make it so expensive to process e-waste that it would probably end up in a landfill.