This argument is as old as time. There even was a satirical text on the matter 2 centuries ago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Bastiat#Eco...: The Sun, being an infinite source of free light, is unfair competition to candlemakers and should be blocked to allow the economy to grow and people to make a wage.

And yet we still don't have a good solution for the societal problems it causes.

This is the case with any advance, and could be said about all sorts of exploitative, dangerous forms of employment. In general we seek to remove these and consider it a good thing and an advance for humanity.

Should I feel sad we no longer send kids up chimneys to sweep them?

I agree that social programs are needed to help these folks, but I think even without them, undermining this industry is a win.

> The flip side though, is that you're making diamond miners unemployed

I'm responsible for many unemployed miners as I've never bought a diamond. Also you're responsible for unemployment in smiths by not buying horsehoes.

I've seen vidoes from some of those mines and I don't think the miners browse job openings with their morning coffee before heading off to work. I think they probably just do whatever the man with the (literal or figurative) gun tells them to.

If we let them slaves free how are they going to feed themselves?

See how similar that sound to what you are saying?

> I suspect if they had alternate employment opportunities available that were more pleasant/better-paying, they'd have already taken them.

Spoken like someone who thinks that mining is conducted by volunteers.

erm in the vast, vast majority of cases they are..

Most of the world's diamonds are coming out of open-cast mines and most of those are in Russia.