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The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

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

#511

Post by snvzz »

surajrmal wrote: post #486
snvzz wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate is irrational, and yet it does not justify murder. Similarly, you can love w/o sabotaging the relationship by marrying, giving the other party a red button and a strong incentive to press it, effectively pushing the relationship out of balance. Statistically, they will. And statistically, you'll be screwed.

Is the incentive financial? Isn't this assuming you earn more?

>Isn't this assuming

No assuming. Refer to data on Divorce Court rulings on who gets screwed.

Spoiler: It is men, as well as the children if any.

Hard data shows what the odds are like for children who grow up in broken families.

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

#512

Post by Clamchop »

huytersd wrote: post #36
User23 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jewelry isn’t an investment, it’s conspicuous consumption. That said there’s really no reason to buy new unless it’s a custom made piece.

Gold jewelry is very easily an investment. The artisan work on them only increases the cost by 10-15% on the underlying value of the gold (at least in India).

That's a rather steep premium in my opinion and you'll also be penalized when you try to sell it, because small quantities, individual appraisal, and additional cost to the buyer if its fate is to be melted down and refined.

In exchange for all that, you get a physical object that can be lost, damaged, or stolen.

If you're going to invest in gold, it seems like a poor way to do it.

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

#513

Post by oezi »

Retric wrote: post #230
oezi wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding irrationality unacceptable is also irrational.

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.

Certainly, but I was just pointing out to OP that finding it unacceptable when they person they marry has some kind of irrationality is very strong and likely not logical. For one, the affection most relationships are based on love/affection which isn't rational in most cases.

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

#514

Post by oezi »

Retric wrote: post #271
Exoristos wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is there's no one who is not irrational. It's foundationally human.

Ignoring differences in magnitude is a mistake. Buying a lottery ticket when the jackpot hits a billion dollars and blowing 100k in Las Vegas are both gambling, but the first is essentially harmless fun while the second is a sign of deeper issues.

Right, but OP didn't focus on magnitudes. He found irrationality unacceptable. So likely he wouldn't marry a lottery player or horoscope reader.

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

#515

Post by snvzz »

cpursley wrote: post #507
snvzz wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marriage is well-known to work counter to that goal. It destroys families.

There's a vast body of peer reviewed research that disagrees with your opinion.

Why not link some if there's so much? But be careful: it has to be marriage specifically, as compared to relationships w/o marriage.

What we actually know is how marriage ends. Right now, it is already divorce, for almost every marriage.

When divorce happens, courts rule in favor of the woman, most of the time. As a man, it is irrational to marry.

When there's children, it is well demonstrated to result in very bad odds for the healthy development of these children.

As a parent, or intend-to-be parent, it isn't just irrational, but deeply irresponsible as it involves the children's well-being and future.

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

#516

Post by Clamchop »

atleastoptimal wrote: post #261
xivzgrev wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A person who has all the same values as yourself and navigates them in the same ways you do is a figurative unicorn.

And anyway, one of my values is affording grace for people who I see as flawed in some way. I'm certainly quite flawed myself.

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

#517

Post by BlueTemplar »

Animats wrote: post #227

The diamond industry has a terrible problem. They promoted diamonds as "perfection". The most valuable diamond is supposed to be a crystal with no flaws. Then they ran into the semiconductor materials industry. Wafer fabs want every atom where it is supposed to be. So semiconductor materials manufacturers are very good at making crystals with few or no flaws. So, now the synthetic diamond market looks like this.[1] D…

With less other flaws, cut becomes even more important, and even before this happened, even «triple Excellent» / «Ideal» cut diamonds weren't a guarantee of quality :

https://beyond4cs.com/truth-about-gia-triple-excellent-diamo...

Where are their Idealscope / Hearts And Arrows / Angular Spectrum Evaluation Tool (ASET) pictures to prove their diamonds are not crap ?

https://www.whiteflash.com/diamond-education/aset-diamond-to...

(Annoyingly, Whiteflash seem to be the only diamond seller that is willing to provide this bare minimum... and they are only US-based.)

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

#518

Post by snvzz »

sasaf5 wrote: post #440
snvzz wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marriage is well-known to work counter to that goal. It destroys families.

Perhaps we live in much different cultures. I am curious. Well known where? By whom?

>Well known where?

Well-known in the United States.

>By whom?

By anybody not willfully ignorant on marriage and its recorded outcomes.

It would have to be willfully ignorant because, if living in the states, not noticing how much it is happening all around oneself would be very unlikely.

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

#519

Post by nataliste »

brink wrote: post #3

I would like to take this moment to thank https://diamondssuck.com/ for preventing me from buying my wife a diamond, and getting her a much prettier moissanite instead. It's been on hn's front page several times.

I have never understood the obsession with even having rings or a ceremony to begin with. My wife was my wife prior to a judge legally marrying us (and only because my mother-in-law didn't want our children to be bastards). If for whatever reason the government "dissolves" our marriage, it doesn't change anything between us. It's a token formality.

Fortunately, my wife agreed wholeheartedly and we used the obligate ceremony to invite our two favorite people and leveraged the "it's our wedding" card to force them away from their jobs so we could eat Chinese food and play board games with them.

Is there anything more to it than social jockeying and prestige?

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

#520

Post by dragonwriter »

snvzz wrote: post #422
sasaf5 wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, it doesn't.

Marriage is insufficient to save a relationship which wasn't healthy in the first place, though.

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