[g9yuayon]

> I, as a European, cannot fathom how anyone would spend a significant amount of money on an engagement ring

It's all thanks to more than 100 years of marketing campaign and tight control of supply of diamond by De Beers. People did not buy diamond rings before De Beers' "A diamond is forever", and the supply of natural diamond is practically unlimited. I have to give it to the ingenuity of De Beers - they got Soviet Union to agreed to a supply deal after Soviet Union found huge diamond mine that could have supplied the market with dirt cheap diamonds for hundreds of years! So, I'm very happy that Chinese entrepreneurs do not give a shit about De Beers and managed to figure out how to mass produce lab-made diamonds cheaply (yes, the process was invented and greatly improved by the west, but it was China, specifically the manufacturers in Henan Province, that didn't succumb to De Beers' heinous control, and gave De Beers a huge middle finger).

It's funny that the traditional diamond industry started to argue that these lab-grown diamonds were too pure and lacked the impurities that natural diamonds have. And what is the response of the Chinese manufacturers? They laughed, as adding impurity to a lab-made diamond can be easy and precise.

Personality, I hate the kind of consumerism and irrationality driven by De Beers. I'm very happy to see De Beers destroyed.

[jimmydddd]

Agreed. My wife did not care about getting a fancy diamond ring for our wedding (US) but I ended up getting the standard expensive diamond ring out of tradition. One thing I noticed was how many of her female friends and relatives wanted to inspect and complement her ring. Even MY female relatives were saying things like, "Oh, I am glad he chose well, I was worried he was going to cheap out on the ring." So, we have a ways to go in the US. Maybe gen Z will save us.

[merelysounds]

> It's funny that the traditional diamond industry started to argue that these lab-grown diamonds were too pure and lacked the impurities that natural diamonds have.

I guess they're doing that because humans have a long history of idolising old times and old imperfections. We praise analog photo grain, or analog audio noise. Industries from clothing brands to guitar manufacturers release artificially aged products.

Then again, adding imperfections in "post production" seems to be the status quo.

[g9yuayon]

I would assume so too, except that initially De Beers was arguing that natural diamonds were more pure than the lab-made. When lab-made beat every criteria, 3C and whatnot, created by the diamond cartel, the cartel started to argue for impurity.