{"id":54,"date":"2002-02-14T09:32:02","date_gmt":"2002-02-14T14:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/wordpress\/diamonds_are_a_girls_best_friend"},"modified":"2002-02-14T09:32:02","modified_gmt":"2002-02-14T14:32:02","slug":"diamonds_are_a_girls_best_friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/2002\/02\/diamonds_are_a_girls_best_friend.html","title":{"rendered":"Diamonds are a girl’s best friend?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nHappy Valentine’s Day! I just finished reading an interesting
\nAtlantic<\/a> article,
\n“Have You Ever
\nTried To Sell A Diamond?<\/a>”\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nUntil the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds
\nin India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem
\ndiamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines
\nwere discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon
\nbeing scooped out by the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The
\nBritish financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that
\ntheir investment was endangered; diamonds had little intrinsic value — and their
\nprice depended almost entirely on their scarcity.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAnd thus, the DeBeers cartel was formed. DeBeers completely
\ncontrols the world’s diamond supply, maintaining artificial scarcity and
\nartificially high prices. Those who defy the cartel (like
\nZaire in 1981<\/a>)
\nsuffer the consequences.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut who cares? Diamonds are a luxury item. No one forces you to buy them… right?\n<\/p>\n

\nNope. Every American man is expected to spend, at a minimum, two months
\nsalary on a diamond engagement ring. Two months salary (before taxes?) on a
\npretty rock that should be about as valuable as jade or amber. And why<\/em>,
\npray tell?\n<\/p>\n

\nBecause DeBeers says you should. The culture of buying staggeringly expensive
\ndiamond jewelry to cement your engagement did not exist until sixty years
\nago<\/em>. But in 1938, DeBeers created
\nthe “Diamonds are Forever” marketing campaign, and the rest is history.
\nIn twenty years, the American psyche was transformed. At the end of the 1950s
\nDeBeers was able to crow,
\n“Since 1939 an entirely new generation of young people has grown to marriageable age.
\nTo this new generation a diamond ring is considered a necessity to
\nengagements by virtually everyone.”\n<\/p>\n

\nNot that any of this is news. The Atlantic article I cited dates back to 1982.
\nEconomics and marketing professors have used the DeBeers cartel as a
\ncase
\nstudy<\/a> for years. It’s a fascinating issue, from an academic perspective.\n<\/p>\n

\nUnfortunately, there’s no avoiding the result — you can’t get married in this
\ncountry without giving your sweetie the biggest, bestest rock you can afford.
\nEnd of story. Even questioning the idea makes me sound cheap, doesn’t it?
\nThat’s how ingrained the whole thing is.\n<\/p>\n

\nListen, I’ve got no problem dishing out the cash… if that’s what it takes to prove
\nmy undying devotion, so be it. I just resent that a ruthless cartel is forcing me
\nto spend money on a near-worthless object. (And let’s not
\nforget that these days, there is no way to know if you are buying a
\n“conflict diamond<\/a>“, which
\nis the sanitized way of saying “thugocracy diamond” or “rape-and-murder diamond”.)
\nAll I’m saying is, why not spend the money on something positive<\/em>? For example:\n<\/p>\n

\n“Darling, I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life without you. And to cement
\nour relationship, please do me the honor of allowing me to pay back the next two
\nyears of your med school loans.”\n<\/p>\n

\nOr how about:\n<\/p>\n

\n“Darling, I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life without you. And to cement
\nour relationship, I want to give you a really special gift.
\nLet’s go get your teeth straightened, like you’ve always wanted!”\n<\/p>\n

\nWho knew I was such an
\nincurable romantic<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darling, I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life without you. And to cement our relationship, I want to give you a really special gift. Let’s go get your teeth straightened, like you’ve always wanted!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}