Explanation: The De Beers mining company has controlled a large share of the world diamond market for ~150 years now, and has leveraged that share of the diamond supply to convince the world that they're ultra-rare and valuable, far beyond other gemstones. In the 1950s, they doubled down on this scam, launching a marketing campaign to establish diamonds as the new 'norm' for engagement rings and the like.
The Millennial generation born in the 80s and 90s have had less interest in diamond rings than previous generations, like so many other industries, we are blamed for the decline of a fad.
Not just "rare" but synthetic diamonds are simply perfect and cheaper. DeBeers can kick it and no one will notice.
Vapour phase deposition techniques have made mineral gemstones wonderfully available. If I had just a little bit more spare cash, I would buy my D&D table real jems to use in game.
Moissanite is a good lab grade alternative and has a much higher brilliance. It's not cheap, so if the symbolism of price is what you are after without most of the diamond bullshit, it's got you covered. (It's silicon carbine and rare in nature; still much cheaper than diamonds though.)
Stay away from natural ones (if you can even get them?) as they may be found as a byproduct of diamond mining. Otherwise, you are just going to find grains of it from meteorites. (That's just a quick summary; there is a bit more to them so do your research.)
9 Comments
PugJesus@piefed.social · 54 pts · 131d
Explanation: The De Beers mining company has controlled a large share of the world diamond market for ~150 years now, and has leveraged that share of the diamond supply to convince the world that they're ultra-rare and valuable, far beyond other gemstones. In the 1950s, they doubled down on this scam, launching a marketing campaign to establish diamonds as the new 'norm' for engagement rings and the like.
The Millennial generation born in the 80s and 90s have had less interest in diamond rings than previous generations, like so many other industries, we are blamed for the decline of a fad.
[laughs maliciously in Millennial]
CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 131d
Not just "rare" but synthetic diamonds are simply perfect and cheaper. DeBeers can kick it and no one will notice.
Vapour phase deposition techniques have made mineral gemstones wonderfully available. If I had just a little bit more spare cash, I would buy my D&D table real jems to use in game.
TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 131d
Is there anything that Gen Y can't ruin if they set their minds to it? /s
jlow@slrpnk.net · 15 pts · 131d
Pumping a few millions into TikTok ads or buying a bunch influencers or whatever will surely solve this "problem" though, I'm afraid ...
Get_Off_My_WLAN@fedia.io · 13 pts · 131d
It might, if everybody weren't already broke.
ThunderQueen@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 130d
PugJesus@piefed.social · 25 pts · 130d
Based choice, defeating greed with science 💪
remotelove@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 130d
Moissanite is a good lab grade alternative and has a much higher brilliance. It's not cheap, so if the symbolism of price is what you are after without most of the diamond bullshit, it's got you covered. (It's silicon carbine and rare in nature; still much cheaper than diamonds though.)
Stay away from natural ones (if you can even get them?) as they may be found as a byproduct of diamond mining. Otherwise, you are just going to find grains of it from meteorites. (That's just a quick summary; there is a bit more to them so do your research.)
Drusas@fedia.io · 17 pts · 130d
Plus we can make diamonds now, so there's no good reason to be plundering the earth and ruining laborers' lives to get the ones in the ground.
RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip · 11 pts · 130d
We couldn't afford them even if we wanted to buy them.