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Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#151

Post by petre »

joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

> The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.”

Forced child labour used to extract natural diamonds in some parts of the world is also real.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_the_diamond_in...

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#152

Post by ZephyrBlu »

Nursie wrote: post #135
coddle-hark wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does anyone, other than geologists of course, really care about the back-story of the diamond, how it was created and how it was mined? Yes, very much so, as is the case with all lifestyle products. People want to believe that they’re buying something special.

Really? I've never met anyone that talked about it at all. Maybe I don't have conversations about diamonds very often, but people only ever seemed concerned that they were 'real', and latterly that they were conflict-free. > People want to believe that they’re buying something special. What if it turns out they're not?

> What if it turns out they're not?

Buyers remorse or post-rationalization.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#153

Post by crocsarecool »

Nursie wrote: post #76
simonh wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the best option available to people was diamond mining, by taking that away from them we’re by definition pushing them into an even worse option. That’s a big problem I have with a lot of the do-good commentary on developing world labour. Taking away options from people, even bad ones from our point of view, isn’t necessarily doing them any favours. None of these peoples options are going to look good to us. Actua…

I think that we shouldn't keep funding exploitative companies that treat people badly, and industries that are dangerous for workers and environmentally damaging. I think that's a win anyway. Here's another take - able bodied workers are less likely to be sucked into an industry which digs up shiny rocks to send overseas, and may be able to take up something of more benefit to the local economy.

I’m worried that it takes a certain amount of poverty/desperation in the local workforce to be exploited heinously. For them, an exploitative job is probably the difference between eating a little or not eating at all. Yes, it’s good that they won’t be exploited once the mined diamond industry goes away, but I think they’re still getting the rug pulled out from under them. Their income is replaced with nothing, and in a country with a weak economy, there’s probably very little there to help these people in the interim. It’s a desperate situation, even if it’s for their benefit.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#154

Post by Siira »

tom_mellior wrote: post #139
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

> our teacher asked all of the women Sounds like a pretty sexist thing to do. The same question can be asked without putting women on the spot. "If you were to buy a diamond, what would you rather choose?"

Well, there are (lots of) statistical regularities that disfavor specific groups of people. And any one individual could have answered “no,” and thus avoided showing themselves as an idiot who values rocks just because a monopoly prices them exorbitantly.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#155

Post by guerrilla »

me_me_me wrote: post #107
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

Or that some people are small minded without insight of how their decision shape the world around them. Be it diamonds, sports cars, etc doesnt matter.

They were just given the insight, so that's not it. It's more that they don't care.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#156

Post by [deleted] »

petre wrote: post #151
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

> The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Forced child labour used to extract natural diamonds in some parts of the world is also real. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_the_diamond_in...

[deleted]

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#157

Post by vulpesx2 »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #141
tom_mellior wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> our teacher asked all of the women Sounds like a pretty sexist thing to do. The same question can be asked without putting women on the spot. "If you were to buy a diamond, what would you rather choose?"

My initial instinct agreed with you,but I then wondered if there would actually be a relevant gender difference in answers. In western culture, still today I think,majority of men would be buying and majority of women would be receiving diamonds. It would be interesting if this affects answers. Would a buyer go for more practical cheaper option while receiver goes for more expensive traditional options? Or a differen…

Same reaction. I've anecdotally asked this same question: "man-made or natural diamonds?" to my friends in the past – mostly because I can't get past the ethical concerns, but wanted to understand the other side.

I found majority of my men friends argued it's the same diamond without the ethical concerns if you go man-made, while majority of my women friends chose natural (reasons included social pressure, the story, and so on).

Anecdotes aren't proof. But perhaps there is something to looking at this from a gendered (proxy for giving vs. receiving?) lens.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#158

Post by tonyedgecombe »

tromp wrote: post #93
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your opinion on this matter is not particularly important ;) Although you should bear in mind there is a correlation between the amount spent on getting married and the likelihood of divorce.

Is that a positive or a negative correlation?

Positive, the more you spend the more likely divorce.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#159

Post by isitdopamine »

arbitrage wrote: post #89

Diamonds are really ugly and boring. I'm so glad they're finally becoming passé, there are a lot more interesting gemstones and jewelry configs than just "big diamond in the middle".

> Diamonds are really ugly and boring.

Ehm... They are still selling diamonds, just lab-grown. Optically identically to the ugly and boring ones.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#160

Post by berdario »

alias_neo wrote: post #78
trapexit wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is kind of a lazyweb question because the "why marriage?" question has been discussed many times before on HN. https://www.google.com/search?q=marriage+site%3Anews.ycombin... Beyond the social convention that "it's the thing to do" at a certain point in a relationship, some reasons are: - Marriage provides financial assurance for a spouse who will defer their career to raise children. - Some friends and family (…

So, although the question-asker is being downvoted, your response does actually cover interesting discussion topics, and to summarise, the answer could be that the systems and conventions need to change? - I believe in the UK (where I live) one has all of the legal and financial implications automatically when a relationship reaches a certain age (3 years I believe). Legally you would be treated the same way as if yo…

> I believe in the UK (where I live) one has all of the legal and financial implications automatically when a relationship reaches a certain age (3 years I believe). Legally you would be treated the same way as if you were married.

That's not true

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/how-to-sor...

The sibling comment mentions family visas, and indeed those are not restricted to your married partner, but separation is completely different matter

There's a myth about such a thing as a "common law marriage" existing, but that's just that: a myth

https://theconversation.com/common-law-marriage-a-myth-neari...

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