Quote Ferocious Aardvark="Ferocious Aardvark"Also remember that diamonds are a complete and utter fraud, via a worldwide marketing deception that has been beautifully crafted and perpetuated.
Try selling a diamond and see what it's [ireally[/i worth.
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Exactly. The average joe can't tell the difference between a diamond worth hundreds of thousands or a worthless replica, they will say they want the diamond for its 'beauty' but would end up thinking the replica was beautiful as well.
The only authentic market for diamonds is for industrial grade diamonds where the hardness of the diamond serves a purpose. The market for diamonds in jewellery etc is dependent on a dual strategy of both marketing and creating the image of a diamond as being alluring and mystical, and also on a small number of sellers exerting market power by restricting the supply.
These organised criminals that look to trade in diamonds are making the market more competitive by increasing the number of sellers and bringing the market price of diamonds closer to the cost of extraction and reducing the monopolists' rent, hence the huge amounts of campaigning against the rogue diamond trade. These groups are also involved in slavery, torture, murder etc so I am not saying they are good, but the high profile 'blood diamond' campaigning is not motivated just by concerns of human rights but by monopolists concerned about losing their market power.
