Coincidentally, I bought a bunch of moissanite on aliexpress just yesterday. I went looking for artificial diamonds, but they were still more expensive than the frivolity-money I planned on blowing. (and were hard to find in that SEO hellscape) Plus clear silicon-carbide has better optical properties than diamond anyway, so moissanite looks nicer.
Ironically her degree and academic research career are both very much concerned with authenticating the provenence of ancient stuff dug out of the ground. Just not lizard-brain shiny rocks.
If "not wasting money" is a core value for you, but "status" is more important for your partner, things will go sour sooner or later.
Of course it's very difficult to be rational in limerence.
Sounds like they would have been better off not married to those horrible persons.
Exactly. That diamonds are expensive is almost the entire point. If it becomes possible to buy artificial diamond rings for like $50, the tradition will disappear entirely. People will find some other signaling act.
Agreed with your broader point though. IIRC there's an economics term for this—goods that don't follow the standard supply/demand price curve, but where increasing price actually increases demand over some range. Ah, "Veblen" goods, apparently.
That's.. quite a choice of words.
There is something more profound with holding a stone that was forged deep in the Earth and somehow mined from there, too, even if chemically it's the exact same thing.
At least in the consumer world
Glad to read thats changing
