311–320 of 619 posts
Has anyone ever tried to sell an engagement or wedding ring with diamonds? You get cents on the dollar. Even or I should say especially brand names like Tiffany. The whole thing is a scam from start to finish and I wish I could go back in time and avoid the entire thing.
Moissanites: What Every Consumer Needs to Know by Rhino's School of Rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJjohJJYOMU
About halfway through the video there's a good glimpse of the software and hardware used for grading, which is fascinating to see. It's all about optimizing the cuts so that the maximum amount of light is directed where it should go.
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Does it count as a cultural tradition if it was manufactured within the last 2 generations? It’s kinda like asking a family if they celebrate Toyotathon or Hondadays as a tradition.
KFC Christmas dinner in Japan is a fun one. To be fair, all of our major holidays have been co-opted by corporations and they are still warmly celebrated. Going back to wedding rings, giving your new partner something of value is a very old tradition indeed (though what's perceived as valuable has changed greatly).
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This isn’t some random person off the street, this is someone you’re hopefully spending the majority of your life with. It’s ok to be picky.
The point is there's no one who is not irrational. It's foundationally human.
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Guys, buying diamonds, can complain all day about what a rip off it is (it is). But if you apprise your fiancé of the alternatives / opp costs (moissanite, man made, second hand, etc) and she still wants a new diamond, just get her a new diamond. It will make her happy for years. My wife had her heart set on a pink diamond, so that’s what I got her. I made it clear though that if I got this, she is not getting a new…
I wouldn't marry anyone whose happiness is dependent on a artificially expensive hard and shiny rock whose prestige was inflated for years by an industry built on slave labor, especially when far less expensive alternatives exist. If she is apprised of the alternatives and still demands "No I want EXPENSIVE shiny thing" then it's cultural shaming factoring into the decision making. You have to reevaluate what she see…
Diamonds are a scam and an ethical minefield, but I disagree with the notion that women are brainwashed or shallow for wanting one. It’s not about the diamond. It’s about wanting a man with enough resources to waste on a diamond. A diamond’s lack of intrinsic value or utility is a feature. The waste is the point. In a sea of potential mates, finding one who can throw away $3000 as though it were nothing, is a great f…
Marketing companies leverage what is already there. Car companies didn't brainwash men into wanting "rugged", "angry" looking "trucks". They merely recognised the slightly pathetic tendency for some men to want to make themselves look bigger and tougher.
It's the same with diamonds. They work because there is some underlying seed of possibility and they have simply been the best at exploiting that.
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acknowledgement of irrationality, especially one that isn't accompanied with a wish to better themselves away from that irrationality, would be a major red flag for me personally entering into a long-term relationship. there is also a great distinction between "Yeah I know another helping of chocolate syrup on my ice cream is a bad decision, but it'll make me feel good today.", and "You need to make a 10kUSD+ purchas…
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> Nobody is perfect, and when choosing a life partner, you will also need to accept things that you might not like that much, but are still very small compared to all the things you do like.
The casual misogynism [1] doesn't really add anything to the useful idea presented later in your comment.
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Guys, buying diamonds, can complain all day about what a rip off it is (it is). But if you apprise your fiancé of the alternatives / opp costs (moissanite, man made, second hand, etc) and she still wants a new diamond, just get her a new diamond. It will make her happy for years. My wife had her heart set on a pink diamond, so that’s what I got her. I made it clear though that if I got this, she is not getting a new…
I wouldn't marry anyone whose happiness is dependent on a artificially expensive hard and shiny rock whose prestige was inflated for years by an industry built on slave labor, especially when far less expensive alternatives exist. If she is apprised of the alternatives and still demands "No I want EXPENSIVE shiny thing" then it's cultural shaming factoring into the decision making. You have to reevaluate what she see…
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Yikes, that's quite the binary distinction... Surely there is room between those subjective descriptions of people for "hey, I like this thing even though it's irrational, ok?" Let people live their lives and you do you. People aren't a "provider mannequin" just because they like to make their partner happy.
People who make irrational choices about large financial purchases don’t make good long term life partners.
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I wouldn't marry anyone whose happiness is dependent on a artificially expensive hard and shiny rock whose prestige was inflated for years by an industry built on slave labor, especially when far less expensive alternatives exist. If she is apprised of the alternatives and still demands "No I want EXPENSIVE shiny thing" then it's cultural shaming factoring into the decision making. You have to reevaluate what she see…
Plenty of animals do pointless wasteful things to impress partners. I don't think we can expect humans to be any different.