Just to make clear, the Fairphone hardware costs a bit more because it has fair wages and safe working conditions all the way down the supply chain, right down to people who mine the raw materials from the ground.
You are paying a bit more so that the people who make it aren't exploited.
Fairphone's website has an extensive collection of articles about how they do this, for example:
https://www.fairphone.com/en/impact/source-map-transparency/
@FediFollows @Fairphone
It's not *necessarily* that expensive actually. I intend to keep my FP4 5 years minimum, most likely 6, maybe more (depending on LineageOS support or whatever).
If I bought a 400€ phone elsewhere, maybe I'd have to change it in 4 years (broken screen or no more updates or whatever) so that would cost me more in the long run.
And yes, changing that 400€ phone would get me more up to date hardware, but then it's a matter of being the target audience or not.