Diamonds are bullshit
backseatLover12
Posts: 2,312
They really are. Nothing but a marketing scam created long ago. Spread this to all those young lovers out there.
American males enter adulthood through a peculiar rite of passage -- they spend most of their savings on a shiny piece of rock. They could invest the money in assets that will compound over time and someday provide a nest egg. Instead, they trade that money for a diamond ring, which isn't much of an asset at all. As soon as you leave the jeweler with a diamond, it loses over 50 percent of its value.
Americans exchange diamond rings as part of the engagement process, because in 1938 De Beers decided that they would like us to. Prior to a stunningly successful marketing campaign 1938, Americans occasionally exchanged engagement rings, but wasn't a pervasive occurrence. Not only is the demand for diamonds a marketing invention, but diamonds aren't actually that rare. Only by carefully restricting the supply has De Beers kept the price of a diamond high.
Countless American dudes will attest that the societal obligation to furnish a diamond engagement ring is both stressful and expensive. But here's the thing -- this obligation only exists because the company that stands to profit from it willed it into existence.
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 a century into coveting sparkling pieces of carbon, but it's time to end the nonsense.
The Concept of Intrinsic Value
In finance, there is concept called intrinsic value. An asset's value is essentially driven by the (discounted) value of the future cash that asset will generate. For example, when Hertz buys a car, its value is the profit they get from renting it out and selling the car at the end of its life (the "terminal value"). For Hertz, a car is an investment. When you buy a car, unless you make money from it somehow, its value corresponds to its resale value. Since a car is a depreciating asset, the amount of value that the car loses over its lifetime is a very real expense you pay.
A diamond is a depreciating asset masquerading as an investment. There is a common misconception that jewelry and precious metals are assets that can store value, appreciate and hedge against inflation. That's not wholly untrue.
Gold and silver are commodities that can be purchased on financial markets. They can appreciate and hold value in times of inflation. You can even hoard gold under your bed and buy gold coins and bullion (albeit at a ~10 percent premium to market rates). If you want to hoard gold jewelry however, there is typically a retail markup so that's probably not a wise investment.
But with that caveat in mind, the market for gold is fairly liquid and gold is fungible -- you can trade one large piece of gold for 10 smalls ones like you can a 10 dollar bill for 10 one dollar bills. These characteristics make it a feasible potential investment.
Diamonds, however, are not an investment. The market for them is neither liquid nor are they fungible.
The first test of a liquid market is whether you can resell a diamond. In a famous piece published by The Atlantic in 1982, Edward Epstein explains why you can't sell used diamonds for anything but a pittance:
Retail jewelers, especially the prestigious Fifth Avenue stores, prefer not to buy back diamonds from customers, because the offer they would make would most likely be considered ridiculously low. The "keystone," or markup, on a diamond and its setting may range from 100 to 200 percent, depending on the policy of the store; if it bought diamonds back from customers, it would have to buy them back at wholesale prices.
...
Most jewelers would prefer not to make a customer an offer that might be deemed insulting and also might undercut the widely-held notion that diamonds go up in value. Moreover, since retailers generally receive their diamonds from wholesalers on consignment, and need not pay for them until they are sold, they would not readily risk their own cash to buy diamonds from customers.
Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rohin-dhar/diamonds-are-bullshit_b_3708562.html
American males enter adulthood through a peculiar rite of passage -- they spend most of their savings on a shiny piece of rock. They could invest the money in assets that will compound over time and someday provide a nest egg. Instead, they trade that money for a diamond ring, which isn't much of an asset at all. As soon as you leave the jeweler with a diamond, it loses over 50 percent of its value.
Americans exchange diamond rings as part of the engagement process, because in 1938 De Beers decided that they would like us to. Prior to a stunningly successful marketing campaign 1938, Americans occasionally exchanged engagement rings, but wasn't a pervasive occurrence. Not only is the demand for diamonds a marketing invention, but diamonds aren't actually that rare. Only by carefully restricting the supply has De Beers kept the price of a diamond high.
Countless American dudes will attest that the societal obligation to furnish a diamond engagement ring is both stressful and expensive. But here's the thing -- this obligation only exists because the company that stands to profit from it willed it into existence.
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 a century into coveting sparkling pieces of carbon, but it's time to end the nonsense.
The Concept of Intrinsic Value
In finance, there is concept called intrinsic value. An asset's value is essentially driven by the (discounted) value of the future cash that asset will generate. For example, when Hertz buys a car, its value is the profit they get from renting it out and selling the car at the end of its life (the "terminal value"). For Hertz, a car is an investment. When you buy a car, unless you make money from it somehow, its value corresponds to its resale value. Since a car is a depreciating asset, the amount of value that the car loses over its lifetime is a very real expense you pay.
A diamond is a depreciating asset masquerading as an investment. There is a common misconception that jewelry and precious metals are assets that can store value, appreciate and hedge against inflation. That's not wholly untrue.
Gold and silver are commodities that can be purchased on financial markets. They can appreciate and hold value in times of inflation. You can even hoard gold under your bed and buy gold coins and bullion (albeit at a ~10 percent premium to market rates). If you want to hoard gold jewelry however, there is typically a retail markup so that's probably not a wise investment.
But with that caveat in mind, the market for gold is fairly liquid and gold is fungible -- you can trade one large piece of gold for 10 smalls ones like you can a 10 dollar bill for 10 one dollar bills. These characteristics make it a feasible potential investment.
Diamonds, however, are not an investment. The market for them is neither liquid nor are they fungible.
The first test of a liquid market is whether you can resell a diamond. In a famous piece published by The Atlantic in 1982, Edward Epstein explains why you can't sell used diamonds for anything but a pittance:
Retail jewelers, especially the prestigious Fifth Avenue stores, prefer not to buy back diamonds from customers, because the offer they would make would most likely be considered ridiculously low. The "keystone," or markup, on a diamond and its setting may range from 100 to 200 percent, depending on the policy of the store; if it bought diamonds back from customers, it would have to buy them back at wholesale prices.
...
Most jewelers would prefer not to make a customer an offer that might be deemed insulting and also might undercut the widely-held notion that diamonds go up in value. Moreover, since retailers generally receive their diamonds from wholesalers on consignment, and need not pay for them until they are sold, they would not readily risk their own cash to buy diamonds from customers.
Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rohin-dhar/diamonds-are-bullshit_b_3708562.html
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Comments
It's like someone saying "Look at this thing! It represents my value."
seriously tho - i can appreciate that but there is a lot of rocks that can fall similarily into that vain ... i think the point of this thread is the value society has place on them ... much of which is artificial ... it's fine to find personal value in something but it's another when that value is forced upon us by social constructs and marketing agencies ...
Dont forget diamonds are a girls best friend.
The diamond for the engagement ring?
Or the....
Lawyer for the divorce?
i am thrilled/grateful i never did
here is what i think... diamonds are bullshit
mining companies are bullshit
wholesalers are bullshit
jewelers are bullshit
it is a scam, folks
sure diamonds, gold, silver, crystal, rubies, emeralds & other fine stones
are formed over millions of years deep beneath the earth's surface
all those shifting plates inside the earth bring up the diamonds & whatnot
if i ever get married
i'd love having a wife that told me as follows, "fuck no i don't want a diamond ring or earings, let's take that $$$ & go to peru & visit the shamans at the ayahuasca ceremony retreat
give your lover a turquoise stone on a leather cord
give a chunk of amazonite with a hole through it to fashion a leather cord necklace
just my opinion & don't wanna hurt anyone's feelings
this scam has been going on far to long & has blood stains everywhere
engagements & engagement rings are completely ridiculous
while im at it... another bullshit ordeal is weddings
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
often kind of a sickening feeling over-comes my gut where i retch & blowout a kidney
a few times though nothing happens as they are decent
dudes wearing all that crap... holy toledo!
why didn't their parents beat them silly?
guys with gold chains, diamonds & bullshit might should be used as bird-feeder holders
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
diamonds are not a girls best friend
whoever came up with that little statement
should be sent back in time
to visit 'ivan the terrible' for three weeks at ivan's goodtimes family resort
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
Women with bling tend to not be very earthy.
as you know they have certain properties
i've felt my quartz crystals go absolutely nuts before as have others
cool stuff
in my R front pants pocket are three quartz crystals
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
Yeah, I kinda dig bling-freeness
diamonds & bling... stink like a sasquatch farted under the covers & forced one's head under the quilt & up into his rotten hairy crack area. as many of you all know by now, sasquatch don't bathe all that well. swimming isn't using a natural bar of soap
for sure dudes blinged up gotta go
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
bootlegger, I've heard of some cockamamie standard where a fella is expected to spend several months on a ring.
That's an emergency fund!
But this can be said about a lot of things. Seems to me that a ton of people out there expect to go on at least 1 or 2 vacations per year. Think of the money spent there. At least you can sell the diamond later if you need to get the money back.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.