https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
A Veblen good is a type of luxury good, named after American economist Thorstein Veblen, for which the demand increases as the price increases, in apparent contradiction of the law of demand, resulting in an upward-sloping demand curve. The higher prices of Veblen goods may make them desirable as a status symbol in the practices of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. A product may be a Veblen good because it is a positional good, something few others can own.
That said, part of the problem with lab-grown diamonds is that they’re not competing against a rare commodity. They’re competing against a powerful vertically integrated cartel. There isn’t any real diamond shortage, just a supply-side monopoly. There isn’t a natural high demand for diamonds, just a market saturated with aggressive advertising. There isn’t a wholesale diamond exchange judging the rocks objectively on their quality, just a series of elaborate marketing gimmicks and scammy sales goons trying to upsell you.
Diamonds have always been a racket. The one blessing of manufactured diamonds is that they’re no longer a racket putting market pressure on industrial grade diamond equipment. But the jewelry exists to separate gullible superficial status-fixated people from their money. Ethics was never part of the equation.
Best comment that I also hated reading all month.
Anything to the effect of “this ring isn’t expensive enough” is the only reason you need to never marry that person.
For a few years I’ve saved this pic from previous similar posts in various places, no need even for freaking diamonds
Moisannaite gives the most rainbows, and I think they are gorgeous.
But I do love the sparkle of diamonds, and sometimes prefer it. Fortunately synthetic ones are easy to come by.
Is that a difference in the material, or is the Moissanite cut differently?
If Moissanaite just does that, then damn, that’s pretty.
Moissanite is a completely different substance than diamond, it’s a silicon carbide crystal, and it’s also made synthetically so no worries about exploitation mining, it’s also cheaper
I’m asking about the light. The lightshow produced by a crystal is down to both the optical properties of the material, but also the geometry of how it was cut.
The image is really cool, but it only demonstrates a difference if the moissanite was cut into the exact same shape as the diamonds.
A prism doesn’t split light because of the material its made of, but because of its shape.
Isn’t it both shape and material? The refractive index of the material is important in determining how much the light bends at the interface.
Yes, but a clear crystal is a clear crystal.
If you want to split light you can do what regardless of refractive index (as long as it isn’t zero), you’d just need to cut different angles and/or project the light onto a surface that’s closer/farther to get the same effect using a different material.
Yes, but a clear crystal is a clear crystal.
No, different materials have different refractive indices, even if they’re both “clear crystals.” Maybe the examples given are very close in refractive index, but they still differ, therefore split light differently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_refractive_indices
I’m not saying it’s the entire difference, but it certainly comes into play. It could be that the more “explosive” light example is cut identically, but held slightly askew versus the others.
Point is, it’s not just the cut that impacts the result.
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That’s literally my point.
I’m saying you can’t tell the difference between two materials unless they are cut the same.
If they are cut differently to achieve the results you are seeing, you can’t tell whether the difference is because of the cut, or because of the material.
