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The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

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421–430 of 619 posts

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that just because a mine isn't in Africa that means it's a good place to work then I disagree

Have you been to any diamond mine and compared the working conditions to something like a gold or iron ore mine?

Better than iron, similar to high grade non vein based gold mines. You mine it the same way as gold but your profit margins are better.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#422
post #419
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marrying is irrational to begin with. A man that relies on rational thought should avoid marriage; the cons absolutely outweigh any advantage.

Having a loving person to share a personal history with is an advantage that's difficult to outweigh.

Marriage is well-known to work counter to that goal.

It destroys families.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#423
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marrying is irrational to begin with. A man that relies on rational thought should avoid marriage; the cons absolutely outweigh any advantage.

Love is irrational. If you avoid all irrational things, you are not human.

I would even say it's perfectly rational. Having someone who understands you and supports you, reliably by your side is a huge boost to your capacity to reason.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#424
post #4

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.

I bought my partner's diamond and wedding ring set before we were hip to the shenanigans around diamonds. We had the ring melted down to make a pendant for our child with the diamond (which they'll receive when they're an adult) and no longer wear wedding rings (mine was a ~$20 tungsten ring from Amazon luckily). Thousands of dollars wasted in hindsight. Hot take: Diamonds are scams, don't buy them! Take a trip, buy…

> tungsten ring

You do realise that in the (admittedly unlikely) event of that needing to be cut off, you won't stand a chance?

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#425
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Marrying is irrational to begin with. A man that relies on rational thought should avoid marriage; the cons absolutely outweigh any advantage.

Pretty sure the main advantage is passing on your genetics.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#426
post #395
post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes the tradition spread, but people don’t live in the same place our ancestors did 600 years ago either. Traditions diffuse across generations, cultures, and geographic borders that doesn’t somehow make them new or fake.

I don't recall where I read it, but: > Yes the tradition spread, but people don’t live in the same place our ancestors did 600 years ago either. Yes, they do :-) The vast majority of people, especially in underdeveloped or developing countries, DO live in the general area where their ancestors moved during the last migration, which for some was thousands of years ago. People really don't move away unless it's easy or…

Most people have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 16 great grandparents, etc out to several generations before incest kids in. Many of those people stayed in place, but when you’re talking hundreds of thousands of people they aren’t all sedentary.

Even just within Africa there’s been a huge amount of migration recently.

Not all of this was even voluntarily. I have ancestors that trace back to Spanish Armada in 1588 getting stuck in England.

> Most current food is modern.

Only by the strictest interpretation of recipes. Most food is remixes of ancient staples like bread and cheese, or like tomatoes local plants that spread hundreds of years ago.

You could get a cheeseburger, as in ground beef topped with cheese served on a bun, going back to antiquity. Thomas Jefferson had "potatoes served in the French manner" at a White House dinner in 1802. Thin sliced potatoes boiled in oil may have first entered the western diet all the way back in 1623, but we don’t know what "papas fritas" means.

Staples like rice are obviously ancient and still make up a large part of peoples diets.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#427
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marrying is irrational to begin with. A man that relies on rational thought should avoid marriage; the cons absolutely outweigh any advantage.

Pretty sure the main advantage is passing on your genetics.

Having children and marriage are independent concepts.

Marriage is a concept humanity made up, and in another era might have made sense.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#428
post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not necessarily about manipulation, it's about not being codependent. If every time your partner is unhappy, you freak out, your ability to be a good partner is diminished. Couples need some buffer between their emotions to dampen extreme lows.

You guys are reading too much into that expression.

They are probably relating lived experience and we should listen.

The phrase isn’t “happy partners, happy life” and there is no “happy husband, happy life” equivalent that I’m aware of. It’s unbalanced, and if you have a partner that reciprocates, it must be confusing why the phrase is a problem. If you don’t, and you continually adhere to the phrase hoping they will until your health suffers, well we might reconsider our casual use of pithy sayings and their influence on children.

It’s clearly a divisive issue here but that usually means people have had a diversity of experiences around the topic.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was really never true though. Second hand diamonds have been incredibly cheap compared to retail for a long time. Good luck reselling that engagement ring, the pawn shop has a box overflowing with them.

Why don't more people buy diamond rings at pawn shops?

[deleted]

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#430
post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't more people buy diamond rings at pawn shops?

Because of the propaganda campaign from the foaming mfrs: “if you don’t spend a lot do you really love her? What signal are you sending?”

And add to that superstition - "what if this used ring came from a divorce?"
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