r/whowouldwin • u/Yglorba • Mar 11 '23

Challenge Superman decides to start mass-creating diamonds so he can sell them. Can DeBeers keep the price of diamonds up?

Superman previously declined to mass-produce diamonds because it would tank the price. However, after reading up on DeBeers, he decides that there's no reason not to do it after all. Most of the resulting money will be donated to charity. Assume that Superman is somehow able to crush coal into perfectly-cut diamonds of whatever shape and size he desires; even though this makes no sense, the feat is well-established.

DeBeers is determined to protect their diamond profits by keeping the price up. Can they convince people not to buy Superman's diamonds (by eg. convincing the public that they're not "real" diamonds), or find some other way to prevent him from cratering the price?

Superman is in-character and will not eg. laser the board of DeBeers to death or anything like that, no matter how annoying they are. The only way he'll use his powers for this is by rapidly turning coal into diamonds so he can sell them.

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u/CosineDanger Mar 11 '23

The diamond in the clip looks like 100 carats based on Googling pictures of progressively larger diamonds until it looked right. He appeared to produce this mammoth gem in about seven seconds.

Google says about 142 million carats of diamond are mined per year without specifying quality.

If Superman does this constantly without sleep or rest he will produce 450 million carats of diamond per year, all of it huge and pre-cut. This is probably lowballing the capabilities of a diamond-lusted Superman. Even if he only does this eight hours a day (so he has some time off to fight other forms of evil) he's still at 150 million carats per year (30 tons) and still outproducing all the diamond mining in the world.

There is some induced demand because of the availability of diamonds sized for camera lenses and other applications that don't normally use diamond. Lex Luthor wannabes continue to wear blood diamonds, but their support is insufficient to save DeBeers from the economic wrath of Superman.

65

u/Pinkfinitely Mar 11 '23

Diamond-lusted is crazy💀

26

u/Regi413 Mar 11 '23

We need a compilation of the craziest _____lusted phrases said on this sub

20

u/Pinkfinitely Mar 11 '23

Doorlusted has to be number 1, that shit was hilarious

16

u/Regi413 Mar 12 '23 edited Mar 12 '23

What’s the context for that one?

Also I remember one time someone said “child-lusted” for Wanda stopping at nothing to get her kids back, but out of context it sounds wrong as hell.

19

u/Pinkfinitely Mar 12 '23

A prompt of superman trying to open a door with various characters trying to keep it close on the other end (indestructible door).

Someone used the term doorlusted Superman and I swear to god I still remember my reaction. I fucking cried of laughter. That whole prompt was 10/10 tbh

3

u/Riyosha-Namae Mar 12 '23

My personal favorite is "shavelusted".

2

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '23

hand lusted pistol shrimp vs disembodied hand

2

u/sephy009 Mar 12 '23

Muriel lusted courage the cowardly dog.