this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
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"what the hell's the point of a diamond if no slaves died to get it and it costs less than a starter home? Now that any one of you disgusting peasants can own one its WORTHLESS!!!"
-some asshole who works for DeBeers presumably
I can actually see some folks giving it value because people died for it.
Aluminum jeweleries were popular in the 19th century. Light weight and shiny like silver. Then they found a cheaper way to extract aluminum from ore. Then people started using aluminum for industrial applications, made utensils from it etc. and then nobody wanted a piece of jewelry that was made from the same material as a fork. Just wanted to share.
I believe one of France's kings had aluminum dinnerware back when it was still hard to make. Fun times.
Car company 1: would you want a BIG MANLY TRUCK made out of the same thing as a COKE CAN?! EWWW
Car company 2: you want your BIG MANLY TRUCK made out of the same thing as a FIGHTER JET! FREEDUMMMMMM!
I do think that lab grown diamonds will eventually end the whole diamond thing, and here’s why. The allure of diamonds is about 5% based in their objective sparkly qualities and 95% a status / wealth construct which is based around their scarcity / their artificially-maintained expensiveness. Manufactured diamonds eliminate the scarcity and expensiveness. Therefore they will not be a cultural construct that holds any status, or meaning as a symbol of wealth, for much longer. Basically manufactured diamonds have a short window when they can capitalize on cultural mores about diamonds with a cheaper product. But they themselves are destroying 95% of the allure of diamonds in doing so. Not only will mined diamonds lose value, but manufactured diamonds will too - unless they can innovate to keep coming up with cool stuff like bigger gems with cool visual qualities. Eventually they will be valued only for their objective sparkle or whatever, and the rest of the status game will cease to exist. You can see that this has already taken place for many people in this thread. Surely, certain rich people are still paying a premium just to know that their diamond is mined. But eventually fraud will undermine that, and yes even some guilt about mining practices. Rich people will have to move on to some other status symbol. But it takes time. Concepts of how weddings are supposed to go do not change quickly, in part because parents have a lot of say in how their kids’ weddings go, and this bridges the generations and keeps old mores alive. To a degree. But anyway yeah kiss this whole diamond thing goodbye pretty soon here.
As someone for whom 100% of her desire for diamond jewelry was that they make pretty sparkles, I'm all for it. Status symbols are silly, make pretty sparkles cheaper
Yep, not seeing any downside here, bring on the bling