“The diamond engagement ring tradition could be the greatest PR scam ever invented. It is ingrained in society that everyone from the stockbroker to the janitor has to shell out thousands to the diamond industry if he wants to marry his woman. After all. It’s “how you can make two months’ salary last forever,” right?

Eighty years ago, your great grandparents didn’t do this when they got married. They gave each other big wooden boxes and simple things like promise rings and hope chests. The allure of diamonds is part of a huge, century-long conspiracy by the diamond industry, namely giant De Beers, which controls stockpiles and sets the price of stones, which aren’t the rarest in nature, even though they’re the most expensive…”

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