> Today, De Beers hold on the industry supply chain is less strong. And yet, price continue to rise as new deposits haven’t been found recently and demand for diamonds is increasing in India and China. For now, it’s less necessary that the company monopolize the supply chain because its lie that a diamond is a proxy for a man’s worth in life has infected the rest of the world.

So the monopoly is gone, prices are rising because of fixed supply in the face of increasing demand, but diamonds are still bullshit because their value is based on a consumer irrationality.

I hate to break it to the guy, but half of the consumer economy is built on irrationality (and half of silicon valley is built on advertising that irrationality to consumers). Pretty much every luxury good is purchased for signaling reasons. Paying more for a diamond with a particular clarity grade or color isn't any less irrational than paying more for a top-end BMW, even though you'll never take it over 60 because of all the traffic.

I don't see peacocks wandering around saying "feathers are bullshit"

Subjective theory of value...etc.

In the end many people like birds like bright shiny objects. This just in, fads like beany baby's, bitcoins, and baseball cards are also a thing. http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html

PS: Land is still cheap: "The United States farm real estate value, a measurement of the value of all land and buildings on farms, averaged $2,900 per acre for 2013"

http://dilbert.com/strip/1992-07-12

If there were a company whose sole purpose was reselling jewelry like this at a pretty big markdown from competitors, I wonder how sustainable/successful it would be, because I know I would support it.

Part of my thinking about this is just my desire to "stick it to the bad guys", but part of it really is a recognition that traditions aren't going to change over night, so we might as well try to save some people a little money.

Proposed to her last Saturday with a shiny diamond ring, she's now my fiance, so I think it was worth it.

Then there are controlled-vapor-deposition synthetic diamonds, which are manufactured by a process which looks a lot like a small semiconductor wafer fab circa 1985. Those can only be distinguished from natural diamonds because they have some hydrogen and silicon inclusions detectable with a laser and microscope setup. The manufacturing process is kind of slow, but that's because it's low-volume. If Applied Materials, which makes semiconductor fab gear, reworked the diamond fab process, diamonds would probably be priced like RAM chips.

Jewelry from both processes is available.

As for synthetic diamond for abrasives, that's easy to make and available by the kilogram on Alibaba.

https://youtu.be/N5kWu1ifBGU?list=PLuKg-WhduhkksJoqkj9aJEnN7...

That reminds me, I need to make some replacements. (We had a bunch, but they aren't very durable.)

As for the comments, pretty much nothing anyone says will convince someone that something is stupid once they have done it. Even if you do convince them you will only make them feel bad - so try to be nice.

Every time I think of this, this plays out in my head: "Sorry sweetie, I love you but hate diamonds more. I'm not going to buy you a sweet ring to show off to all your friends. Will you marry me anyway?"

I since went back on that thought and clarified that those genuine diamonds grown in a factory were pretty cool.

Fucking stupid right? I thought the same thing, but I was ultra-frugal and had a hard time thinking of better things to spend my money on than making my wife happy, especially with how often I was gone (which was a lot).

I justified it to myself a few ways. First, by how much her eyes lit up when she first saw it. Second, we decided not to have a wedding because of how silly it was: pay tens of thousands for a few hours, not to mention the hassle in planning it. Third, this thing would make her smile every day for the next ~80 years. Lastly it wouldn't cause undue financial strain. I wasn't rich, but I was ultra frugal and had a comfortable amount in savings. For example I still have the same car (a now 10yr old Honda Civic) I had then. I also bought her a little ring cleaner so it always looks great because every time I see an $80,000+ car that's dirty I think, "What's the point?"

We've been married around 7 years now. Every time she looks at it it makes her smile. Everytime she looks at it she thinks of us and what we have. She still gets compliments on it all the time. How much is all that worth? How much will it all have been worth when we're in our 80's? There aren't too many ways to buy happiness, but if you could see how happy it makes her you'd see that this is one.

The interesting thing is that my wife isn't into jewelry or expensive stuff. She also has an old Honda Civic, still has the same clothes she wore in college, etc. She doesn't care about that kind of stuff and hated shopping until she was in her mid-30's and work required a change of attire. But our marriage is important to her and a wedding ring represents that for her.

If I could afford it, I would have easily paid 2-3x what I paid for the ring because it's worth it. I agree, it's stupid and it's just a rock, but it wasn't for me--it was for her and it means a lot to her. Every time I see her look at it, smile, then look at me (which she still does 7 years later) I think of how it was worth every penny.

You can buy a lot of mediocre stuff and have a lot of mediocre experiences with your wife, or you can go above and beyond with one thing that will last forever. If I bought her a $2,000 ring instead I could spend $500,000 in clothes, purses, shoes, etc. for her over 10 years and none of it would make her as happy as this thing does. It's the only thing that she always wears.

What kind of ring did I get you ask? I got a ~$25 ring from Walmart.