No matter how much we pat ourselves on the back for how rational and smart beings we humans are, the reality is that emotions are running the show much more than logic. Evidence is everywhere - elections, fashion, life, shopping and partner choices and so on. For some people its almost purely emotions, and their lives usually look accordingly. Peer pressure, status symbols etc - all just variations of same emotional loops.
Congrats to having such a smart wife.
Re:Diamonds Keep Getting Cheaper
by whatshisface on Wednesday November 13, 2019 @11:19AM
(#21525840)
Not only are emotions running the show, the emotions are being run by very rational marketers and politicians. Although this may have been less true in past centuries, today being run by emotions means being run by other people.
It's always been true, but there is a difference in scale due to the reach of modern media.
You can get pretty far by modeling humans as 1/2 bacteria and 1/2 beagle.
Re:Diamonds Keep Getting Cheaper
by AtlasBarfed on Wednesday November 13, 2019 @12:02PM
(#21526385)
Nothing compared to when you get a house as a couple. Rational pricing and cost-benefit analyses go out the door when the emotional buttons hit on some overpriced place.
But at least the resale value of a house is generally a /lot/ better than the resale value of a diamond.
Used to be. I expect the price of McMansions built in the last 20 years to plummet as people realize they cost more to heat, clean, and maintain, without providing commensurate value.
A big house can have value, but not the way they are typically built in the US. A valuable one has a big-enough living section with a separate workshop, gallery, or apartments. American zoning laws tend to forbid it, so the workshop is often labeled a "garage". Your garage can be as big as you like, but you may be obliged to conceal how you use it.
Strange but true, Americans have been taught it's normal. Like diamonds.
While she knew that diamonds are more or less worthless logically, the marketing and social drivers kept it in her head that she needed one - the emotional need was very very high. But the more she read about the human cost the more in conflict the social worth of the things became.
Ultimately she decided that the moral cost aligned with her logical mind and that's what finally overrode her emotional desire to get one. She still wanted a sparkly thing and after spending some time looking in to lab grown diamonds, she coudn't get over the basic worthlessness of having an expensive sparkly thing and ended up just getting a modest lab grown moissanite ring -- on sale and with a discount coupon.