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  1. The AtlanticEdward Jay Epstein2/1/8253 min
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    The Atlantic
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    • jeff
      Scout
      4 years ago

      Fascinating piece on the "diamond invention." Since this article was written back in 1982 I was super curious to see how the trends have progressed since then. Unfortunately it seems that millennials are killing just about every industry except for the one run by a cartel that manipulates people into spending absurd amounts of money on useless rocks.

      • Jessica4 years ago

        I always thought of diamonds as really cool products of deep Earth-churning activities. Then the whole monetization part of it makes me feel gooey and rather sad.

        • jeff
          Scout
          4 years ago

          Industrial diamonds are still really cool and incredibly useful! Especially when you need to cut or grind a difficult material, but yeah everything about how the gems are mined, processed and sold is pretty unfortunate.

          I'm really curious why the marketing strategies worked so well in the US and Japan (two very different cultures!) but never saw success in other countries like Germany and Austria. I'm going to have to go digging around for more articles.

    • Jessica4 years ago

      ...but, diamonds aren't forever! One day they'll turn into graphite (unless the planet burns up first).