Diamonds are ...

The Diabolical Monocle · 03-07-2014 07:03PM #1

intrinsically worth pretty much nothing.

yes a girls best friend too ... but seriously, you've probably got old scratched records that are worth more than the 10 carat rock worn by the local talent-less celebrity.

How mad is that ted ?

Theres enough of them out there for everyone to have a cup full of them.

DeBeers however, in a move of epic crafty bastardry and Mr Burns-iness own and/or simply buy up the supply. So turning something with the actual value of a potato into something that some people will spend a months wages on.

I only found out about this the other day, did any of yis previously know about this folly. And can we do the same with turf. Are there any other similar shenanigans like this going on that the world should really know about.

Or while we're at it, what other large scale, entire-world screwing scams do you know of.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rohin-dhar/diamonds-are-bull****_b_3708562.html

(use arrows to scan down page - page dodgey)

Americans exchange diamond rings as part of the engagement process, because in 1938 De Beers decided that they would like us to. Prior to a stunningly successful marketing campaign 1938, Americans occasionally exchanged engagement rings, but wasn't a pervasive occurrence. Not only is the demand for diamonds a marketing invention, but diamonds aren't actually that rare. Only by carefully restricting the supply has De Beers kept the price of a diamond high.

You see, diamonds aren't really even that rare.

Before 1870, diamonds were very rare. They typically ended up in a Maharaja's crown or a royal necklace. In 1870, enormous deposits of diamonds were discovered in Kimberley, South Africa. As diamonds flooded the market, the financiers of the mines realized they were making their own investments worthless. As they mined more and more diamonds, they became less scarce and their price dropped.

The diamond market may have bottomed out were it not for an enterprising individual by the name of Cecil Rhodes. He began buying up mines in order to control the output and keep the price of diamonds high. By 1888, Rhodes controlled the entire South African diamond supply, and in turn, essentially the entire world supply. One of the companies he acquired was eponymously named after its founders, the De Beers brothers.

03-07-2014 07:04PM

Only found out about de beers eh?
It's mindblowing when you do all right

Buzz Killington the third · 03-07-2014 07:10PM

Ah stop it, they're not worthless no matter how you look at it. They're one of the toughest substances known to man so they'll always have that value even if the market was flooded.

looksee · 03-07-2014 07:12PM

Well they might be a girl's best friend, but they are way down the list of things I might wish to own.

Fr_Dougal · 03-07-2014 07:16PM

bluewolf wrote: »

Only found out about de beers eh?
It's mindblowing when you do all right

Speaking of de beers, it's about time we had another one!

Adamantium · 03-07-2014 07:17PM

Neil De Grasse Tyson was on the the Joe Rogan show last year and he said he was at some manufacturing facility in Russia that had learned how to make artificial diamonds purer than the purest natural ones in earth. He was blindfolded before heading there and his phone taken off him to keep it secret, they don't want the world at large know with the existence of these if they decide to flood the market with them before they patent the machines for them.

He said women probably wouldn't buy them anyway if you told them it was artificial, because society has been sold "this romantic notion of a diamond forged in the deep firey bowels of the earth for billions of years, like a romance that could last forever, that's a real diamond"

Muise... · 03-07-2014 07:17PM

Buzz Killington the third wrote: »

Ah stop it, they're not worthless no matter how you look at it. They're one of the toughest substances known to man so they'll always have that value even if the market was flooded.

Yup, lots of technologies need them.

As for jewellery and magpie things - I prefer less sparkly stones and pearls.

darkpagandeath · 03-07-2014 07:20PM

People did not know about a mining company making Diamonds a valued item for weddings rings and such. :pac::pac::pac:

Renegade Mechanic · 03-07-2014 07:21PM

Adamantium wrote: »

Neil De Grasse Tyson was on the the Joe Rogan show last year and he said he was at some manufacturing facility in Russia that had learned how to make artificial diamonds purer than the purest natural ones in earth. He was blindfolded before heading there and his phone taken off him to keep it secret, they don't want the world at large know with the existence of these if they decide to flood the market with them before they patent the machines for them.

He said women probably wouldn't buy them anyway if you told them it was artificial, because society has been sold "this romantic notion of a diamond forged in the deep firey bowels of the earth for billions of years, like a romance that could last forever, that's a real diamond"

Then let women have the comparatively less useful rocks. Save more of the better ones for good uses. Like consaw blades!

Jeefff · 03-07-2014 07:22PM

Everything bar oxygen, water and food is worthless until you want it.. Or are told you need it (marketing)
If I were given a huge diamond I wouldn't thank you for it, were you to give me four new tyres for my van though, I'd hug you..
Value is a personal opinion, in my opinion

Lucifer MorningStar · 03-07-2014 07:22PM

Bloody expensive

Renegade Mechanic · 03-07-2014 07:24PM

Jeefff wrote: »

Everything bar oxygen, water and food is worthless until you want it.. Or are told you need it (marketing)
If I were given a huge diamond I wouldn't thank you for it, were you to give me four new tyres for my van though, I'd hug you..
Value is a personal opinion, in my opinion

How about 4 new Wanlis?:p

My name is URL · 03-07-2014 07:24PM

Lots of communists in this thread

Adamantium · 03-07-2014 07:24PM

Jeefff wrote: »

Everything bar oxygen, water and food is worthless until you want it.. Or are told you need it (marketing)
If I were given a huge diamond I wouldn't thank you for it, were you to give me four new tyres for my van though, I'd hug you..
Value is a personal opinion, in my opinion

Diamond encrusted tires you say?

The council will never be done with the roads.

_Redzer_ · 03-07-2014 07:30PM

Buzz Killington the third wrote: »

Ah stop it, they're not worthless no matter how you look at it. They're one of the toughest substances known to man so they'll always have that value even if the market was flooded.

They are extremely valuable with all their uses, but they really are worthless in monetary terms.

You can grow perfect diamonds artificially in labs. It's the jewellery industry that's trying to block commercialisation of "synthetic" diamonds and to watermark them in order to make lab diamonds worthless compared to "natural" diamonds, even though they're the same thing.

thelad95 · 03-07-2014 07:31PM

I don't understand how people find this and the creation of money thing mind-blowing. Both are covered in the admittedly archaic Leaving Cert Economics syllabus.

The price of diamonds has little to do with either the supply or the demand for them. They are a giffen good which means as the price rises, people demand more but as the price falls, their perceived value falls meaning people will buy less as they are seen as less of a status symbol.

The contradictory nature of diamonds value was recognised by Adam Smith in his Paradox of Value: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_value

Nemeses · 03-07-2014 07:33PM

I thought Diamonds are forever?

Renegade Mechanic · 03-07-2014 07:36PM

Nemeses wrote: »

I thought Diamonds are forever?

For ever ever?

Nemeses · 03-07-2014 07:39PM

Renegade Mechanic wrote: »

For ever ever?

Til the end of time forever.

Deep right?

The Diabolical Monocle · 03-07-2014 07:43PM

Nemeses wrote: »

I thought Diamonds are forever?

No no no ... thats castration, or our national debt.

Capt'n Midnight · 03-07-2014 09:53PM

Nemeses wrote: »

I thought Diamonds are forever?

They are just inanimate carbon rods and like other forms of carbon can burn.

They aren't that rare, massive price support mechanisms like De Beers buying the entire Russian output for years.

They can be made easily enough too.

Also
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3492919.stm

The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 4,000 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

Pawn · 03-07-2014 09:55PM

I don't buy diamonds or gold. I like silver.

Pumpkinseeds · 03-07-2014 09:56PM

Feck off with ye OP, I likes my blingy, flashy, sparkly diamonds:D

03-07-2014 10:51PM

Diamonds are surrounded by exploitation and corruption - even the so-called conflict-free ones. Don't really want that on my finger, I'll settle for a man made diamond. Cheaper, just as sparkly and a lot more likely to be ethical.

If diamonds are a girls best friend then a man-made one is at the very least damn good company.

Jake Rugby Walrus666 · 03-07-2014 11:05PM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

They are just inanimate carbon rods

You're an inanimate fvcking carbon rod

The Diabolical Monocle · 03-07-2014 11:08PM

Jake Rugby Walrus666 wrote: »

You're an inanimate fvcking carbon rod

No YOURE an inanimate carbon rod.

Nemeses · 03-07-2014 11:09PM

The Diabolical Monocle wrote: »

No YOURE an inanimate carbon rod.

Are we not carbon based anyway?

Therefore EVERYONE is an inanimate carbon rod...

03-07-2014 11:11PM

We are stardust. We're all diamonds.

Tail Docker · 03-07-2014 11:14PM

Shine bright like a diamond...except diamonds don't shine - try turning off the lights..

Muise... · 03-07-2014 11:16PM

Candie wrote: »

We are stardust. We're all diamonds.

My God! We're full of stars!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbLRzabppus

03-07-2014 11:20PM

And we're golden.

Diamonds are ...

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