On the Economics of Diamonds, the Biggest Marketing Scam in History Orchestrated by the Most Successful Cartel Ever

From the Priceonomics blog post “Diamonds Are Bullshit” by Rohin Dahr (emphasis added):

Americans exchange diamond rings as part of the engagement process, because in 1938 De Beers decided that they would like us to. Prior to a stunningly successful marketing campaign 1938, Americans occasionally exchanged engagement rings, but wasn’t a pervasive occurrence. Not only is the demand for diamonds a marketing invention, but diamonds aren’t actually that rare. Only by carefully restricting the supply has De Beers kept the price of a diamond high.

Countless American dudes will attest that the societal obligation to furnish a diamond engagement ring is both stressful and expensive. But here’s the thing – this obligation only exists because the company that stands to profit from it willed it into existence.

So here is a modest proposal: Let’s agree that diamonds are bullshit and reject their role in the marriage process. Let’s admit that as a society we got tricked for about a century into coveting sparkling pieces of carbon, but it’s time to end the nonsense.

A diamond is a depreciating asset masquerading as an investment. There is a common misconception that jewelry and precious metals are assets that can store value, appreciate, and hedge against inflation. That’s not wholly untrue. Diamonds, however, are not an investment. The market for them is neither liquid nor are they fungible.

The next time you look at a diamond, consider this. Nearly every American marriage begins with a diamond because a bunch of rich white men in the 1940s convinced everyone that its size determines your self-worth. They created this convention – that unless a man purchases (an intrinsically useless) diamond, his life is a failure – while sitting in a room, racking their brains on how to sell diamonds that no one wanted.

We covet diamonds in America for a simple reason: the company that stands to profit from diamond sales decided that we should. De Beers’ marketing campaign single-handedly made diamond rings the measure of one’s success in America. Despite its complete lack of inherent value, the company manufactured an image of diamonds as a status symbol. And to keep the price of diamonds high, despite the abundance of new diamond finds, De Beers executed the most effective monopoly of the 20th century. Okay, we get it De Beers, you guys are really good at business!

Diamonds are not actually scarce, make a terrible investment, and are purely valuable as a status symbol. Diamonds, to put it delicately, are bullshit.

MP:As I wrote back in 2006, in the early days of Carpe Diem:

The diamond industry has to be one of the biggest marketing scams in the history of the world:

Step #1: Take a relatively common mineral of compressed carbon, artificially restrict the supply and distribution of that mineral by means of a powerful cartel, and charge consumers an artificially high price, way above the true market price.

Step #2: Pursue an aggressive worldwide marketing campaign to deceive people into believing the myth that diamonds are somehow “special and scarce,” when that specialness and scarceness has been completely man-made and artificial, carefully created and orchestrated by the De Beers diamond cartel.

Think about the advertising slogan “Diamonds are forever.” Well, wouldn’t a rock or a penny or a piece of steel be forever, too? I have sharks’ teeth that are 50 million years old, so I think sharks’ teeth are probably forever, too. And wouldn’t a ruby or an emerald or a bar of gold be forever too? And why pay a lot of money for something that will last for a million years when you’ll only be able to use it for maybe 50 years? Seems irrational.

What is the current biggest threat to the market manipulation of the diamond industry, and why is it possible that “cartels aren’t forever?” Cultured, laboratory-grown diamonds, produced in diamond growth chambers by companies like Gemesis that have the same physical, chemical and optical characteristics as a mined diamond.

Bottom Line: If you buy diamonds, you are supporting an anti-consumer market manipulation of the diamond industry by one of the most successful cartels in history (at least up until recent years). Don’t buy into the myth and marketing hokum of “false scarcity” and pay artificially inflated prices for diamonds. If you do buy diamonds, consider buying conflict-free, eco-friendly laboratory diamonds! Americans have been duped for a century by a diamond cartel, and it’s time to stop getting ripped off.

(Note: This post is from the Carpe Diem archives, originally posted June 11, 2013.)