The natural diamond industry is getting rocked. Thank the lab-grown variety

What Diamonds Represent: Status, Cost, and Ritual

• Many comments argue diamonds are valued less for physical properties and more as status signals: “expensive crystalline carbon” equated with love, commitment, and provider roles.
• Several see the cost itself as the whole point: a way to display wealth and seriousness, especially in traditional gender-role framing (man as provider, woman displaying his spending).
• Others push back, rejecting partners who condition marriage on ring size/price, and emphasize that meaning comes from the couple, not the stone.
• Some compare diamonds to branded fashion or luxury bags: same functional product, wildly different prices because of what the brand represents.

Natural vs Lab-Grown: Purity, “Soul,” and Marketing

• Technically minded commenters stress lab-grown and mined diamonds are the same material; lab stones are often more pure and flawless.
• Natural-diamond defenders appeal to uniqueness, geological time, and “soul” or “aura,” similar to original art vs reproductions. Skeptics respond that this is sentiment plus marketing.
• There’s debate over fluorescence, impurities, and detection: current machines often rely on natural impurities; synthetics could easily be engineered to mimic them.
• Many point out the inversion: for decades fewer defects meant “better”; now natural-diamond marketing frames defects/“complexity” as character.

Ethics, Cartels, and Consumer Behavior

• Strong condemnation of De Beers and the cartel: artificial scarcity, hoarding, “a diamond is forever” campaign, blood diamonds, and colonial exploitation.
• Some argue the industry’s moral stain is now widely known; others say ethics were not enough until lab-grown became much cheaper (first ~50%, now ~10% of natural).
• Counterview: early ethical awareness (articles, movies, online “diamonds suck” discourse) helped set the stage for lab-grown acceptance once prices fell.

Prices, Store of Value, and Generational Shift

• Multiple comments highlight diamonds’ terrible resale value and illiquidity; they’re seen as a bad “store of value” compared to gold or genuinely rare gems.
• Comparison to NFTs: diamonds as expensive, socially recognized “coupons” of waste rather than intrinsic value.
• Younger buyers are described as more willing to skip diamonds or choose lab-grown/other stones, influenced by cost of living and skepticism of the scam-like pricing.

Industrial Uses and Synthetic Scale

• Industrial users praise cheap synthetics: CVD and HPHT diamonds now underpin abrasives, drill bits, optics, thermal management, and emerging quantum/spintronics devices.
• Large factories with hundreds of reactors and sub-$30 variable cost per carat are cited; commenters see a race to the bottom on jewelry margins and natural diamonds retreating to a small ultra-luxury niche.

Alternatives and Future Fashion

• Suggestions include moissanite, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, titanium or gold bands, and heirloom rings; some predict a swing toward colored stones once diamonds feel “cheap.”
• Others think any high-status gem will eventually face the same fate once high-quality synthetic versions become ubiquitous.