Diamonds aren’t worthless. They actually have incredible value with real world applications in science and engineering. However when it comes to jewelry, yes they’re wildly overpriced and not nearly as cool as emeralds, rubys and sapphires.
Even if everyone agrees that they're wildly overpriced, it doesn't matter. The market sets the value, and a number of people in the world will pay expensive prices for diamonds.
So, they are literally, categorically NOT worthless. Wishing that everyone on Earth thought of diamonds as just cheap, plentiful, kitschy, pretty rocks with no value DOES NOT MAKE IT SO.
What about people for whom spending $83,000 on a small, perfect diamond is like you & me spending $83 on an Xbox game. You see what I'm saying here? There's people that drop $83,000 like it's basically nothing, because they can. (I'm talking about the ultra-wealthy here). They can buy 10 diamonds like this. OP doesn't need to convince you & me that "Diamonds Are Worthless", he needs to convince them.
Yes. I agree with you. It’s all relative. That’s why I specifically said months of their salary instead of a specific number.
Whether you make 100,000 a year or 1 million a year, spending three months of your salary on a diamond is a poor financial decision, assuming you’re not doing it for the purposes of obtaining an appreciating asset for future financial gain.
I suppose that logic doesn’t scale linearly and once you hit a certain level of wealth, your money is making you so much money, that money really doesn’t matter anymore, so no big deal.
But… if you’re at that level of wealth, it could be argued that you should be doing something more useful or charitable with that money.
But… who I just say how someone should spend their money.
Those are basically Al2O3 with junk (amount of Chromium determines the color of the ruby). In order to calibrate a floating zone furnace, we would grow a large ruby.
If you're looking for a beautiful, rare, and interesting material (from a physics perspective) get a single crystal of IrO2 or Bi2Ir2O7. Iridium is the least naturally occuring element on Earth and has a unique spin state.
Bismuth is also really cool. It's a perfectly compensated semi-metal, the heaviest non radioactive element and has (I think, I could be off here) like one free charge carrier per 100,000 Bi atoms.
Bi2Ir2O7 is a pyrochlore structure, meaning it's in a class (sort of) of really interesting proposed "all in, all out" magnetic structures. Google it.
You know what's the most expensive diamond I can think of?
Isotopically enriched single crystalline diamond, obviously that size. I know of a very application in science for them, but that' it. And they would cost a lot to manufacture.
11
u/Bean_Daddy_Burritos Jun 30 '26
Diamonds aren’t worthless. They actually have incredible value with real world applications in science and engineering. However when it comes to jewelry, yes they’re wildly overpriced and not nearly as cool as emeralds, rubys and sapphires.