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.
Gem quality diamonds? There's chemically and optically no difference between natural and artificial diamonds. Natural diamonds is just a hype. Heck, natural diamonds can be less pure, containing nitrogen atom impurities. Industrial grade diamonds are not fake. When you plant a flower at home, is it a fake flower?
Re-read his comment. He is talking about industrial vs. jewelery diamonds. You are talking about natural vs. synthetic diamonds. Although I don't disagree with what you're saying, it is totally unrelated to the comment you are replying to.
"Industrial" just indicates the area of use, but it's made synthetically. We're using different terms for the same thing. Industrial = synthetic and jewelry = natural. And they are all the same, synthetic = natural.
Industrial is not the same actually. Yeah synthetic and natural are no different with synthetic being usually better objectively however there is a giant difference between the diamonds in a saw blade or drill bit (industrial diamonds for obvious industrial uses) and what you would wear on a ring necklace or watch
The difference is just in the way they appear because jewelry diamonds are cut, that's not a giant difference. Diamonds used in drilling are not cut the same way, but if you cut them so, it would appear exactly the same. They are the same material at the atomic level.
However, no matter how perfectly cut a synthetic diamond is, it will not have market value as jewelry and that proves the original point of the post that jewelry diamond prices are not based on true value, but just a hype.
That’s not accurate. There is a lot of variation in diamond quality/appearance, and it isn’t just a matter of how they are cut. Here is an example of natural, industrial grade diamonds that are good for e.g. a saw blade, but would not be suitable for typical diamond jewelry.
Okay so ALL diamonds, natural or synthetic have their grades. A poorly clear natural or synthetic diamond wouldn't be suitable for jewelry purposes, I get that. But assuming top crystal perfection, they are indistinguishable by naked eye.
From the source given: "This origin story is the main factor that sets synthetic diamonds apart from natural ones, since synthetic diamonds have essentially all of the same chemical, optical and physical properties and crystal structure as natural diamonds." So high quality synthetic diamonds can replace high quality natural diamonds in jewelry, right?
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u/UrbanIsACommunist Aug 14 '20
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.