If that's the case, somebody ought to update the wikipedia page.
What might come as a surprise to the average engagement ring shopper is that diamond is a wildly abundant material in the universe. On that scale it's nothing special -- possibly it's just slightly less ubiquitous than silica sand. It's the heavy metals, like gold and even tungsten, that are rare and weird.
The carbon-rich planets described in the Wikipedia article have formed by condensation from gases in which carbon was more abundant than oxygen, which happens in the gases from which some stellar systems have formed.
The Solar System has formed by condensation from gases where there was more oxygen than carbon, and this remains true for Mercury.
Mercury has a somewhat higher proportion of carbon than other planets, because much oxygen has been lost in space, as a component of water and of other easy to vaporize oxides, due to the high temperature of its surface. Even so, it contains much more oxygen in silicates, than carbon.
The core of Mercury is made of iron alloy, like all planet cores. This study supposes that the liquid core has been saturated in carbon. In this case, when the core has solidified, it must have expelled a part of the dissolved carbon at the surface of the core. Due to the high pressure, the expelled carbon must have formed diamond, instead of forming graphite, as it happens at the solidification of smelted pig iron (after a sufficient time, so that any metastable carbides will decompose).
What does this mean? That you just have to suck it up and shell out 3 salaries or you are not worthy or manly enough? Anybody old enough who has seen tons of various marriage crap knows that this increases quality of marriage by exactly 0% (at least in positive direction, negative can be debated but I'd say its mildly above 0), and same effect goes into 'durability' of it.
But for men, its a fantastic litmus paper - even if you explain this and the requirement remains strict, thats a massive personality red flag, which never ever goes alone. For me personally it would be no-go since life is too short to make such mistakes, but I am out of these games hopefully for good.
It means that if you are in the market for an actual diamond, then you will be presented with a price and have no way of altering what the market price is.
If you want moissanite or something else, or dream of asteroid mining to flood the market on earth, that has nothing to do with anybody else in the market for diamonds.
I think the understanding that they are not rare and that the price is entirely an extortionary corporate fiction to collect huge profits will influence one's desire to pay the high price.
Like if you buy a gold ring, I suspect its cost will be pretty related to the base price of commodity gold, the labor involved in creating it, and a reasonable markup for the company to survive. But it is too commoditizatized for it to have the super high prices diamonds have. Knowing that diamonds are horribly overpriced will reduce some people's desire to actually buy one. So telling people this helps save people money.
It's equally valuable because it's symbolic culturally and a status symbol.
> I think the understanding that they are not rare and that the price is entirely an extortionary corporate fiction to collect huge profits will influence one's desire to pay the high price.
That's like telling people their Gucci bag actually costs $100 to manufacture and thinking it will make them stop buying them. People do things to signal social status. It's never been a rational thing so rationality isn't going to fix it.
If we flood the market with diamonds people will find the next status symbol to cling on to. You can try to stop it at gun point like the Soviets/Chinese did but that still never stopped the remaining few with status from engaging in it (see NK today).
Humans are just flawed biology who do dumb stuff and there will always be another person who will give it to them in exchange for their money and another person to desire what they now have.
You’re not wrong, but the price of diamonds isn’t due to their scarcity, but rather control od supply. De Beers controls the supply and therefore the price.
Try selling the ring for the same price. You’ll quickly find out that the price is not the price. And there’s a reason for it, but that’s a discussion for another day.
If that's the case, somebody ought to update the wikipedia page.
What might come as a surprise to the average engagement ring shopper is that diamond is a wildly abundant material in the universe. On that scale it's nothing special -- possibly it's just slightly less ubiquitous than silica sand. It's the heavy metals, like gold and even tungsten, that are rare and weird.