10 Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True... Or, Did You Know Diamonds Are WORTHLESS?!

Around 1888, when numerous diamond mines opened and began operating in South Africa, diamonds were - and, I kid you not - mined by the truckload!
Capitalism is all about Supply vs Demand so, simple math tells you, having truckloads of diamonds flooding the diamond market brought the price of diamonds way down.

(sigh) So, what's a capitalist diamond producer to do?

Well, the many independent diamond companies all got together and formed a single, worldwide entity - a cartel called De Beers (they are still the flagship of the diamond biz, today).

And, de minds at De Beers realized that, if they warehoused their copious quantity of carbon-based carats and allowed only a tiny amount to be trickled out at a time... it would cause the price of the radiant rocks skyrocket.

So, that's what De Beers did then and it's what De Beers does today.

But, De Beers soon realized that they had another problem: Only de rich and famous were buying De Beers diamonds (gasp)!

How were they ever going to get the working- and middle-classes to buy De Beers diamonds?

Around 1938, de masterminds at De Beers unleashed a massive marketing campaign to promote the "Diamond Engagement Ring" with this slogan:

"Diamonds Are FOREVER"
(The phrase not only struck gold then,  it's still used to this day).

De Beers also met with many of de heads of the Hollywood film studios and paid them lots of money to include scenes of their bigger-than-life, manly movie heroes getting down on bended knees and proposing to the oh-so-happy heroines with diamond engagement rings.

Believe it or not...  prior to this crushed-coal carpet-bombing, most (about 90%) 'engagement rings' did NOT include diamonds.

After their Four-C's campaigns?  ... About 80% of engagement rings included diamonds.

Well, I say, "Boycott De Beers and their (worthless) blood diamonds!"

Or, "A Scam Doesn't Have To Be FOREVER", works, too!