| Picture this: You're in economics class in 11th | | | | So diamond prices are still very high. Why? Can |
| grade or thereabouts. You go in there thinking | | | | culture not change with regard to this simple |
| you understand the basic concept of supply and | | | | stone? The answer is it can, but economics are |
| demand, but then the teacher puts all these | | | | stopping them from falling even if culture wants |
| graphs on the board and you have no idea what | | | | them to change. What's stopping them from falling |
| she's talking about. You say to yourself: How can | | | | are monopolies. One day, the company that |
| something I understood just 5 minutes ago be so | | | | basically controlled the diamond market and |
| complicated? The answer is: school is not really | | | | almost all of supply, and therefore all of demand |
| education. It's graphs, like the supply and demand | | | | (forget the graph) and therefore diamond prices in |
| graph. If you don't understand the graph, you | | | | their entirety, decided that a good diamond ring |
| don't understand supply and demand, even though | | | | should cost between two and three months of an |
| you did before you saw the graph. So, without | | | | average salary. |
| graphs, let's talk about supply and demand with | | | | The problem was, in order for diamond prices to |
| diamond prices. | | | | be lower, you need something called competition. |
| Diamond prices fluctuate, but not really that much | | | | Competition is basically a non DeBeers company |
| compared with other goods. But why are there | | | | flipping DeBeers the bird and saying, "We're |
| diamond prices in the first place? What I mean is, | | | | lowering our prices so people will buy from us and |
| why are they worth anything? Why does | | | | you'll be out of business." If DeBeers wanted to |
| anybody even want them? The answer, as my | | | | stay in business in that kind of situation, they'd |
| old AP US History teacher told me when I was in | | | | have to lower their diamond prices accordingly. It |
| 11th grade, is...ankles. | | | | would be a completely different world. But there |
| She was explaining why pot is still illegal, but the | | | | was no one out there at the time to flip DeBeers |
| same principle applies here. Diamond prices are | | | | the proverbial bird. |
| high because people want them, and people want | | | | It is the extraordinary level of diamond prices that |
| them because other people want them, because | | | | fuels a lot of the African militia wars through back |
| culture has sustained itself on that front. We | | | | door trading in conflict diamonds. If they were |
| believe they're valuable, so they stay high. Ankles | | | | significantly lower, it is doubtful African tribes could |
| showing used to be scandalous, and it still would | | | | fund one another's slaughter so efficiently. Who |
| be that way had culture not evolved since the | | | | knows how the continent would have turned out? |
| 19th century in that regard. Pot is still illegal | | | | Something tells me that regardless of the prices, |
| because the pot-legalizing culture has not | | | | they'd find a way to go at it anyway. But here's |
| undergone an ankle revolution yet. But there's no | | | | to dreaming. |
| other objective reason. | | | | |