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Diamonds Are Bullshit

blog.priceonomics.com

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Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#341

Post by mixmastamyk »

enraged_camel wrote: post #304
maratd wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so they just leave De Beers to run around gouging consumers That's kind of missing the point. If diamonds were 5 bucks a piece, women would no longer be interested in receiving rings bejeweled by them. A woman wants a man who is financially secure. If you can't afford a shiny rock, you can't afford what's coming after it either, so there's no point.

It doesn't have anything to do with financial security. Look, if your man is spending three months worth of salary on a piece of shiny rock, he is exercising poor financial judgment and that is a signal against future financial security. Women want diamonds not because of any symbolic reasons ("Diamonds are forever!") but because of reasons that are much more practical: they want to be able to show off the diamonds t…

Financial security and status are two sides of the same coin.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#342

Post by lectrick »

enraged_camel wrote: post #304
maratd wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so they just leave De Beers to run around gouging consumers That's kind of missing the point. If diamonds were 5 bucks a piece, women would no longer be interested in receiving rings bejeweled by them. A woman wants a man who is financially secure. If you can't afford a shiny rock, you can't afford what's coming after it either, so there's no point.

It doesn't have anything to do with financial security. Look, if your man is spending three months worth of salary on a piece of shiny rock, he is exercising poor financial judgment and that is a signal against future financial security. Women want diamonds not because of any symbolic reasons ("Diamonds are forever!") but because of reasons that are much more practical: they want to be able to show off the diamonds t…

What if I bought a nominal ring and instead threw the rest of the money (and then some) at a REALLY awesome vacation for us?

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#343

Post by tsotha »

rwhitman wrote: post #61

Please don't remind me about this. I'm pretty sure every guy knows all this already and unless you have a super hippy / progressive girlfriend (and even then..) you will ultimately find out that even the most rational women could give a crap about the economic / social realities of the diamond market and still " need " a diamond of X carat in order to impress their family and friends. DeBeer's wins. Either you get ov…

The funny thing is it's not just the guys who realize this. It's the women too. One day there will be a preference cascade and everyone will look at each other and ask "Why are we spending so much money on semi-precious stones?" But until that day...

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#344

Post by mistercow »

maratd wrote: post #166
kyrra wrote: post #132

(person I know) worked for GE (General Electric) on their industrial diamond production process back in the 90's, and I got to hear lots of fun stories from this. Diamonds that are man-made[1] are stronger (fewer imperfections) than those that are mined from the earth. Because of this, industrial diamonds tend to be man-made. (for reference, industrial diamonds when cutting hard materials, such as metals). While work…

> so they just leave De Beers to run around gouging consumers That's kind of missing the point. If diamonds were 5 bucks a piece, women would no longer be interested in receiving rings bejeweled by them. A woman wants a man who is financially secure. If you can't afford a shiny rock, you can't afford what's coming after it either, so there's no point.

>A woman wants a man who is financially secure. If you can't afford a shiny rock, you can't afford what's coming after it either, so there's no point.

What a quaint and gross way of looking at the world.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#345

Post by fennecfoxen »

sk5t wrote: post #323
overgryphon wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think women, as a whole entire gender of people, enjoy making other people feel inadequate? Perhaps if she's going to wear a ring for the rest of her life, she wants it to be a nice ring that is color neutral. Perhaps she doesn't want something cheap and easily replaceable acting as a symbol for your marriage.

It's a very common human vice, to want to feel competitively superior to one's peers. Fancy cars, jewelry, designer clothes, you name it--these industries depend on the urge to make others jealous. Cubic zirconia or other gems might be cosmetically identical to a diamond. Wanting a $30K ring for its "color neutral" characteristics smacks of astroturfing.

> It's a very common human vice, to want to feel competitively superior to one's peers.

And to be clear, it's not exactly as if women are the only ones who have this vice. Women are just the ones likely to receive engagement rings.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#346

Post by fatjokes »

Articles like this are bullshit. Not in the sense that they're untrue, but in the sense it won't change a thing. Men buy diamonds because women want them. Women want them to show off to other women.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#347

Post by rayiner »

mattstreet wrote: post #328
rayiner wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Adoption. The IQ of children is highly correlated with the IQ of parents. Adoption is not, for educated couples, an alternative to having their own children. > A woman who wants to raise a baby at some point has to make tough choices about formula, breast pumping, bonding, and her other priorities in life. You can make things as equal as possible, but no more. My wife and I have almost identical educational backgro…

So childbirth is extremely dangerous but adopting a kid already out there looking for a home isn't an option for an educated couple...you'd rather your wife risk her health. That's some useful education.

Adoption is a great option for many couples, educated or not. I didn't say otherwise. What I said was that it's not a fully equivalent to having your own kids. Not worse, but not equivalent. If you're educated, high-IQ tiger parents and want to raise highly successful children, statistically you're better off having your own kids than adopting. This is not to say that adopted kids can't be successful or anything like that. But IQ is heritable, and the simple fact is that there aren't a lot of high IQ couples giving their kids up for adoption.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#348

Post by eli »

blaireaug wrote: post #324
charlieflowers wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like believing in the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny, but for adults. What other manufactured fairy tales have huge quantities of humans swallowed hook line and sinker?

Gilette. During WW2, they didn't have anyone to sell their products to, so they started marketing shaving to women. Before this, a woman shaving was akin to claiming yourself to be a prostitute. Now, it's a cultural norm for women to shave...all because of manufactured desire.

This sounds apocryphal. Women were shaving their armpits in the 1920s.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#349

Post by tsotha »

Archio wrote: post #155
rayiner wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't qualify (3), which is a very important one. I've got a daughter. She's only 4 months old, but I've had occasion to think a bit about this. I would not want her to marry someone who wasn't willing to give her a ring? Why? Reasons (1) and (2) I mentioned, sure, but also reason (3). It is the mark of a sensible man that he cares what other people think about him. People who buck social conventions sometimes b…

> I would not want her to marry someone who wasn't willing to give her a ring That seems like a really shallow and material evaluator of the character of a human being. > People who buck social conventions sometimes become trend-setters and are incredibly successful for it, but more often just make life harder on themselves and the people that depend on them Well thank God that Jackie Robinson, Marie Curie, or Barack…

>That seems like a really shallow and material evaluator of the character of a human being.

You've completely missed his point. It's about knowing when it's not worth the effort to buck society's dictates.

>Well thank God that Jackie Robinson, Marie Curie, or Barack Obama didn't believe this.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://rollingout.com/wp...

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#350

Post by dkural »

mistercow wrote: post #344
maratd wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so they just leave De Beers to run around gouging consumers That's kind of missing the point. If diamonds were 5 bucks a piece, women would no longer be interested in receiving rings bejeweled by them. A woman wants a man who is financially secure. If you can't afford a shiny rock, you can't afford what's coming after it either, so there's no point.

>A woman wants a man who is financially secure. If you can't afford a shiny rock, you can't afford what's coming after it either, so there's no point. What a quaint and gross way of looking at the world.

Except it happens to be factually, empirically true. Read the behavioral & social psychology literature; double blind experiments.
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