I was surprised to learn that diamonds are actually worthless rocks
It's just an aggressive marketing campaign in the '30-'40 that made them worth a lot now.
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MovieChat Forums > Blood Diamond (2006) Discussion > I was surprised to learn that diamonds a...
It has industrial uses, as a cutting tool, but not a whole lot else. Gold's only real value is as a conductor of electricity. Like they said in the beginning of the film, as soon as someone finds a use for something, the fighting starts. The Gods Must Be Crazy satirically illustrates this beautifully. A Coke bottle is thrown out of a small plane in the bush and found by a bushman of the Kalahari. It is harder than anything he has known and he soon finds many uses for it, but everyone starts fighting over it. he attempts to return the bottle to the gods and return peace to his people.
"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"
Gold is actually scarce, relatively. Diamonds are not.
Are you not entertained?!
#Gold is actually scarce, relatively. Diamonds are not.
Nonsense. All the gold in the world fits into a big house for a family (cube with sides of ~21m). All the jewellery quality diamonds fit in a cube of a few meters at most. So compared to the size of the earth both are extremely rare, but diamonds are considerably rarer.
#Gold is actually scarce, relatively. Diamonds are not.
Nonsense. All the gold in the world fits into a big house for a family (cube with sides of ~21m). All the jewellery quality diamonds fit in a cube of a few meters at most. So compared to the size of the earth both are extremely rare, but diamonds are considerably rarer.
Almost all gold nuggets found prior to 1990 have been melted down, while almost all diamonds ever found have been retained. Nowadays geological rarity, natural uniqueness and nostalgia replaced the greed and fear that determined the fate of gold nuggets in the past. Gold nuggets are worth much more than the standard gold value.
World annual diamond production exceeds 130 million carats. About 30% of the diamonds mined are gem quality and 70% are 'industrial'. Diamonds are increasingly mined from solidified volcanic pipes where they were held after having been transported in magma from their place of formation, about 160 kilometers below the earth's surface. Unlike gold nuggets, diamonds are not limited in their occurrence to surface or surface-related deposits. While gold nugget patches are becoming exhausted, diamond reserves are limited only by the ability to mine still deeper.
If you consider gem and industrial diamonds, gold nuggets are more than twice as rare. When the relative volumes are considered, the difference is significant. Gold nuggets have a specific gravity of about 17.5 (90% gold, 9% silver, 1% other), and diamonds have a specific gravity of 3.5. On a volume-for-volume basis, gold nuggets are more than 10 times as rare as diamonds. As a result, gold nuggets are more rare than diamonds. share
And blue, red, pink, green, orange, violet and purple fancy colour diamonds are much much more rare than gold nuggets.
shareWell how do you define value? A resource or item is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. A particular baseball card is just a piece of cardboard but it's lack of availability is what makes people crave it and therefore drive up the cost.
Marketing companies are very good at channeling the human desire to have what others can not.
Your's sincerely, General Joseph Liebgott
Incredibly well said.
shareA resource is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.
True, but how much someone is willing to pay for a good is sometimes driven by its scarcity.
The problem with diamond prices is that the 'scarcity value' has been engineered by multinational cartels, such as de Beers. These companies have God knows how many tonnes of gem quality diamonds stashed away, and only release a comparatively small quantity each year. (I don't know how long this can go on for. The cost of storing these diamonds must be huge, given the volume of diamonds to be stored and the necessary security systems, especially with more and more coming in each year.)
Returning to the OP's post, I understand that de Beer's marketing created the diamond engagement ring ''tradition" at about the time s/he gave.
A similar marketing assault was made on the Japanese wedding market in the 1970s (IIRC): in the 1960s diamond engagement rings were unheard of, but by the 1980s they were de rigueur.
____
"If you ain't a marine then you ain't *beep* share
Not really, diamonds are quite worthy in industrial uses. That we value them as gemstones, well that goes back many centuries. The first recorded history of the value of diamonds, was in India almost 6000 years ago.
Industrial diamonds are valued mostly for their hardness and thermal conductivity, making many of the gemological characteristics of diamonds irrelevant for most applications. This helps explain why 80% of mined diamonds are unsuitable for use as gemstones, and are destined for industrial use. This also makes diamonds for use as gemstones rare, and thus more valuable.
The use of diamonds as engraving tools also dates to early human history. The popularity of diamonds has risen since the 19th century because of increased supply, improved cutting and polishing techniques, growth in the world economy, and innovative and successful advertising campaigns.
As to gold, to say that gold's only real value is conducting electricity, yes quite true. But also remember that gold wire is the *best* conducter, especially when used in modern technology such as pc, cell phones, etc.
And yes, quite correct from Mikeyg24 that we only value something according to the value we place on it.
Everything(!) is just "worthless rocks" until someone says: "I want that".
As several have said here: value is just a made up number. How high that number is depends on so many things. In the end it comes down to what the person that said "I want that" is ready to pay. As you concluded that want is influenced by many things... advertising being one of those things.
Advertising is only one of many factors though... and the most basic factor is need. Need trumphs everything else.
Thought-experiment: standed in the desert with the movie's huge diamond, worth at least a million dollars. You know you are 50 miles from rescue. You are offered $10 worth of water, rations, sun- and night-protection and transport. Without that you will die. With it, you will survive, even in quite good health.
Will you pay the diamond for that?
Here is an excellent TED talk about the intangiable value of things, goods and services and how it's all in the mind.
http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_man
/J-Star
De gustibus non est disputandum
Diamonds aren't worthless they're just not that rare. The rarity of diamonds is a myth inflated by DeBeers the actual company on which Van de Kamp is based. They control the diamond trade and restrict actual supply and demand. That is what Blood Diamond is about.
shareRight. The rarest gemstones are rubies the color of pigeon's blood.
Send lawyers,guns and money/The *beep* has hit the fan
What do you mean "learn"? How can you "learn" something that isn't actually true? "Worth" and "value" have to do with how much someone would pay for it, i.e., what you can get in exchange for it. By your logic, a $100 bill would be a worthless piece of paper.
shareThey're not entirely worthless. They're used on the tips of drill bits to drill for oil, because diamonds are incredibly resilient.
~ I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech.