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Diamonds Are Bullshit

blog.priceonomics.com

31–40 of 774 posts

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#31
post #13

"So here is a modest proposal: Let’s agree that diamonds are bullshit and reject their role in the marriage process. Let’s admit that as a society we got tricked for about century into coveting sparkling pieces of carbon, but it’s time to end the nonsense." Hear hear, but good luck convincing zillions of single women that they'll be the first generation in living memory to miss out on their carbon.

I'm of the opinion that it's easier to lead people toward something better, rather than away from something bad. So instead of overpriced compressed carbon, how about paying for unique designs with rationally priced materials instead?

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#33
post #14

Isn't it much better to get very expensive gold jewelry instead of diamonds if one wants some? That's also shiny and should keep its value much better (since gold requires nuclear reaction to make).

The blog says that gold jewelry is also a terrible investment, but it's a much better investment than diamonds.

Depending on how expensive the jewelry would be, it might be cheaper to buy your own lumps of gold and have someone craft them into jewelry.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#34
post #14

Isn't it much better to get very expensive gold jewelry instead of diamonds if one wants some? That's also shiny and should keep its value much better (since gold requires nuclear reaction to make).

I remember reading an article about a guy who stole a lot of money, then used it to buy diamonds. He got caught. The people he stole from thought "oh, not too bad then. We'll just sell the diamonds to recoup the money." But apparently no diamond vendors would buy them at anywhere near the price the thief did because diamonds are already marked up so much.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#36

Gah! The writer needs to read this: http://www.its-not-its.info/

I used to make posts like this. I'm starting to feel like these words will merge in the next 100 years, and either form will be correct for all usages. This kind of errata in our language doesn't help us do anything and it just causes confusion and frustration.

Agreed. English is already just a mash up, I could care less about grammar so long as what you are trying to say is getting across to me. Certain areas require a comma or period otherwise can be read wrong but I have never had a problem with their, your, its, or any other such words confusing me into not understanding what the writer is trying to say...

Reminds me of growing up "Ain't ain't a word!"

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#37

It's linked within the article, but it's worth pointing out that "Have you ever tried to sell a diamond"[1] is very much worth your time, and has been discussed here many times. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4535611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1405698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1110283 1: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you...

Not only is it linked in the article, it is very much a replay of the original Atlantic article. I didn't see a lot of added value in the article posted here, so just go read the Atlantic's.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#39
There is no reason to be ethnocentric here. There are plenty of world cultures in which a woman wears a simple gold ring after marriage. On the other hand, if you want to get into a serious discussion with your significant other, try violating cultural assumptions about who should pay for the wedding--it isn't necessarily the father of the bride, as it historically was in Anglo-American culture. Sometimes what the groom saves in buying jewelry for the bride is spent on the groom hosting a wedding banquet for all of the bride's relatives and friends.

Re: Diamonds Are Bullshit

#40
So true. I spent more money on my marriage than on my masters degree. Fuc.

My wife has more gold and diamonds than money my family ever owned otherwise. All that stuff doesn't suite her, is locked up in locker rooms of some bank 364 days a year. (And yeah I pay for that fucking locker as well).

Any discussion of selling it would lead to a WWII like situation in the home. The cost of Gold might be skyrocketing but when you actually try to sell gold ornaments or diamonds it is a different game altogether because when I walk to sell the gold not one wants to buy it unless they know me or I pester them. So this is what happens when I met a jeweler to sell a gold chain my mother had made for me when I was 2 years old. Gold typically 15 times most costlier than that time. so I was expecting at least 1000% ROI.

1. I need to first determine if this is real Gold and how pure it is. For that you will have to pay me X. 2. This chain is old and I cant sell it the way it is, it needs to be melted and converted into something else so I will lose Y value in the process. 3. Making a new ornament out of this will lead to more loss of metal during melting and hence I will lose Z.

Then later he tells me that the gold is not "as pure" as I thought it to be. So eventually I make only 200% profit over period of around 12 years. (not to mention the feeling of getting cheated).

Scenario of diamond seems to be lot more similar to that of Gold.

Only if women had little brains.

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