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Second only to Christmas, Valentine’s Day is the holiday when diamonds are most often given as the ultimate token of love. Central to the diamond’s role as a romantic symbol is the belief that diamonds are one of the rarest, most precious gifts for a loved one. But it’s only a myth–diamonds are found in plentiful supply. FRONTLINE examines how the great myth about the scarcity of diamonds and their inflated value was created and maintained over the decades by the diamond cartel. This report chronicles how one family, the Oppenheimers of South Africa, gained control of the supply, marketing, and pricing of the world’s diamonds.
The diamond cartel is yet another example of the internal elite colluding to monopolize resources and create artificial scarcity. As technology continues to improve our standard of living at an accelerating rate, it has becoming increasing that we live in a world of abundance. But in a world of abundance, man cannot be easily controlled…so instead we are made to compete for resources unnecessarily, and to live in fear that those resources will be taken away.
A few interesting notes from the PBS Frontline report:
* The average diamond gemstone actually costs less to produce than your breakfast.
* When the diamond cartel needed workers for their mines, they persuaded the South African government to enact a bevy of new taxes that were required to be paid in the national currency. Peasant farmers, outside the cash economy, were forced to work the mines to secure the cash they needed to pay their taxes.
* In the 1980’s GE developed a process that was capable of creating large (3-4 carats), high-grade, clear or colored diamonds. When the executive in charge of the GE operation announced his intention to the press that GE would enter the gemstone market with this new technology, he was quickly overruled by his boss, the operation was shut down, and a short time later he was terminated.