This might be stupid, but...

@Chapman15 (1492)
United States
January 6, 2007 4:23pm CST
I was thinking about how people in general decided that Gold, Silver, Siamonds, etc were a valuable? So, if it's rarity of the rock then why is marble so expensive to put in your house? So if it was all about the rarest of the rare don't you think space rocks would be up there?
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2 responses
Wizybr
@Wizybr (110)
• Australia
6 Jan 07
It's not stupid at all. The answer is simple though. It's supply and demand. Rarity is just one factor on the supply side. You mentioned marble. First off, marble is not as common as you may think. And, the costs involved in getting marble out of the ground and in to your house are enormous. With things like gold and diamonds, the equation is probably controlled more by the demand side. If nobody wanted gold and diamonds, it wouldn't matter how rare they were. They would be cheap.
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Wizybr
@Wizybr (110)
• Australia
7 Jan 07
I think the demand from people for jewelry is a little over the top. But gold is used in all kinds of electronics and diamonds have lots of industrial uses.
Chapman15
@Chapman15 (1492)
• United States
7 Jan 07
Yeah, when I wrote this I was thinking more about why jewlry, and I gradually started thinking about other expensive rocks!
shywolf
@shywolf (4514)
• United States
6 Jan 07
*laugh* I don't know the answer to your question, but I have to agree that space rocks ought to be the most valuable if we are talking about rarity alone. I really enjoyed what you said there! *laugh* ^_^
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Chapman15
@Chapman15 (1492)
• United States
6 Jan 07
Isn't it crazy what people think is valuable... As for the coment abouve me supply and demand is a quality reason, there's too many examples of that throughout history!
2 people like this