>The fallacy here is the equivalence of economic goods to material goods. Many economic goods are not material. It's not a fallacy as long as economic activity

>The fallacy here is the equivalence of economic goods to material goods. Many economic goods are not material. It's not a fallacy as long as economic activity is a proxy for human activity, because humans consume to survive. In your sheet metal example, while it's the same physical aluminum throughout the process, you've hired a team of people (and expended a huge amount of energy, incidentally). Each of those people will take that money and spend it on food, electricity, clothes, and luxuries. All economic activity ultimately boils down to that.