In this episode of Everything Should Be Better, Tristin Hopper explains how a company convinced the world to spend two month’s salary on a diamond engagement ring. Watch the video above, or read the transcript below.
Weird, right? The only reason you’re paying thousands of dollars for a tiny, not-tremendously special gemstone is because a very shrewd British company tricked you into doing it. But that didn’t happen to diamonds. Instead, this guy entered the picture: Cecil Rhodes. You may have heard of the Rhodes Scholarship or Rhodesia. Same guy.
Here’s some wedding rings from the early to mid 19th century. Notice anything? Not really a lot of diamonds, are there? There were some diamonds, to be sure, but they weren’t the central feature of the ring. DeBeers’ cartel has now been broken. There are now diamond mines all over the world outside their control, including some big ones right here in Canada. We’re also pretty good at manufacturing diamonds artificially. Take a bunch of carbon, squeeze it real tight and, bingo, diamond.
Diamonds really aren’t “worth” anything