Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Here's a non-financial topic I get riled up about...
Diamonds that come from God knows where. Diamonds have the unfortunate values of being very tiny, very valuable, and generally being mined in places that aren't terribly politically stable. Thus, your average diamond was probably mined by somebody who was not paid to do it, and used to purchase firearms or as part of a drug trade. Terrific, no? So I'm all behind the movement to purchase diamonds that you actually can track their original whereabouts, or even fake diamonds such as moissanite, that actually have a higher refractive index than diamonds. (Sparkly!) But if you're interested in a conflict-free diamond, this store BrilliantEarth has a nice selection. I think that selecting a diamond (especially one that will be worn for hopefully the rest of your life) should carry as much weight as you give to selecting an SRI or what not.
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4 comments:
Good idea. I've also read that diamonds are also a bad investment compared to other jewelry (not that any jewelry is a great investment, probably), so all the more reason to buy fake ones.
Totally agree with you. Also diamonds are super overpriced, they are actually not even that rare but people are willing to pay a ton for them. I don't get why someone wouldn't want a CZ or something that's just as beautiful.
Diamonds are a TERRIBLE investment - that's why DeBeers started doing that whole "a diamond is forever" stuff, to keep people from reselling their diamonds on the secondary market and putting downward pressure on the prices. DeBeers controls more than 90% of the diamond markets - which is why the prices stay high whether they need to or not. At least with a fake diamond, or a moissanite or CZ, you know you are basically paying for production costs (which still aren't cheap, but can be cheaper than DeBeers.)
Definitely agreed! But then, I already ranted about this :) Aside from the terrible circumstances under which the diamonds are mined, I find it hard to believe that something that people are so convinced are "forever" would be an investment since you probably wouldn't part with it under most dire circumstances.
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