while every wedding i've been to in recent years has been just unbelievably fun, there's a part of me that gets bothered at times about the exorbitant amounts of money that are often spent on them. now i know a lot of this has to do with tradition, family expectations and the desires of the bride and (to a lesser extent) groom, so i don't begrudge people for that. what really gets to me, though, is the ridiculous inflation that the wedding industry gets away with. and it's everywhere from the catering to the facilities to the flowers to the dresses. i can't tell you how many times i've heard in recent years someone say "this place charges $X to be rented out for a wedding, but they only charge half that for other events" or things in a similar vein. and that's just preposterous, devious and shameful. but nowhere is this practice more prominent than in the diamond industry, which is supplied with a constant stream of customers who have been told that a diamond is a required purchase and they have to spend several paychecks on one. meanwhile, the whole market is being artificailly manipulated to keep demand high and supply low. i was reminded of this by today's edition of The Straight Dope, the inimitable column written by Cecil Adams for decades now and the original purveyor of answers to challenging questions and debunker of urban legends. below are some excerpts from today's column:
Diamonds are a con, pure and simple. The topic is vast, so we won't discuss worker exploitation or for that matter "blood diamonds" used to finance African wars. Instead I'll focus on whether diamonds are worth the exorbitant sums charged for them. Answer: Of course not. Prices are kept high by a cynical cartel that preys on vanity and stupidity.
....[D]iamonds have little inherent value; their perennially high price is solely a function of clever promotion and ruthless manipulation of the market. You ask: Isn't that true of any high-value product? Nope.
....[T]he world diamond market is largely controlled by a single private enterprise, the South Africa-based De Beers cartel. The geniuses behind De Beers recognized early on that a stable, profitable diamond industry depended on controlling both supply and demand....It sets prices arbitrarily and cuts off supplies to dealers who buy through unauthorized channels. On the marketing side, De Beers hired advertising firms, starting with N.W. Ayer in the late 1930s, to render axiomatic the idea that diamonds = true love....The campaign worked--U.S. wholesale diamond sales increased from $23 million in 1939 to $2.1 billion in 1979. The J. Walter Thompson agency performed a similar miracle in Japan in the 1960s, essentially creating a tradition of diamond engagement rings out of thin air.
bonus link: some really terrible lyrics from a song called "Coal to Diamonds"
chorus:
to my face you're precious as gold
but i turn my back and you're just like coal
even through the tears, oh i see
what you really think if me
Okay, I won't comment on the gem thing ( ihave no diamond, though I won't kick one out of bed), however I will comment on the industry. As some know, I work as a wedding and event planner. I am so sickened by it! I recently worked w/ a venue that charged 1,500 for a private party, but 3,200 for a wedding! It's sick!
Posted by: the wife at September 4, 2004 11:13 PM