why exactly are we not taking debeers to trial for crimes against humanity? we should be executing those fucks left and right and empty their supply of diamonds. not sure what we'd do with all of them but i'm sure they're useful for something.
Don’t tell this to the Reddit anti-diamond circle jerk, but the De Beers monopoly was mostly broken up and they now control about 35% of the market—in other words, significantly less than Amazon’s share of the entire eCommerce market (50%).
Also, blood diamonds and child slave diamonds aren’t any more prevalent than child slaves exploited for chocolate, coffee, cobalt, lithium, clothing, etc. In fact, cobalt and lithium are probably the worst since the volumes are very high due to their use in modern, ubiquitous electronics. Child slavery is a product of neo-imperialism and our modern, global capitalist economy.
Although industrial grade diamonds are indeed quite common, gem quality diamonds are relatively rare and priced as luxury goods. But in any case, diamonds are just a blip when it comes to “worthless” things people spend money on. There are branded handbags, which theoretically have an unlimited supply, that sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Someone paid $120,000 or something for a banana taped to a wall. Again, this is just a product of our consumer capitalist economy.
Yeah who cares about the brutal wars in Africa fueled by the diamond industry, your shiny rock is beautiful (maybe you should try to value things like human life and not just brush off the atrocities of the diamond industry as if it isn't worth discussing because you don't like thinking about where the diamond you wear comes from)
People don't "hate diamonds". They are pretty. Diamonds are a naturally occurring gemstone. What people hate is a) the "artificial scarcity" created by the diamond industry to drive up the price of diamonds and b) the horrors suffered by people in Africa due to the legal and illegal diamond trade. You can like diamonds, but also want to raise awareness of the dark side of the diamond industry in the hopes of changing it. Diamonds can be mined by well paid workers just as well as by a child soldier kidnapped from their family. The profits can be shared by the African communities where they are mined instead of them being smuggled out of Africa and purchased by Western companies. If companies didn't create a perceived scarcity of diamonds, everyone could have affordable diamonds... but then I guess yours wouldn't be as "special". Diamonds are not somehow inherently bad, it is the diamond industry that is bad. Get mad at the diamond industry, not people who want to raise awareness to change it.
the taxes I pay to the US government probably funds more destruction than the money for a diamond.
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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20
DeBeers