Norlinda points to this article, which provides ten reasons to avoid a girl’s best friend:
The diamond engagement ring is a 63-year-old invention of N.W.Ayer advertising agency. The De Beers diamond cartel contracted N.W.Ayer to create a demand for what are, essentially, useless hunks of rock.
The article is entitled “Econ-Atrocity Bulletin” and has a rather provocative tone, but it’s clearly well-researched.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Glad to see this is getting more publicity. I decided long ago not to ever buy diamonds. Mel’s engagement ring is going to be an heirloom we already have, but if it wasn’t, she’d be getting some other sort of rock, and she’s okay with that 🙂
AND-the Kalahari bushmen.
Using diamonds as an example, Liz Stanton points out the sad truth, how many of the products we mindlessly consume, in our throw away culture, are produced.
Growing up, I lived in Malaysia for four years. With my family I traveled extensively all over Asia. In Kashmir I saw whole families squatted in front of rugs weaving wool, wound around a piece of wood, into the warp. That image made a huge impression on me.
We’ve all heard of sweat shops, human rights violations and other horrors; however such stories are not limited to third world countries. A few years ago the Clothing company Please Mum, started by a Vancouver women, was charged with underpaying its workers. They were sending out piece work for workers to do at home. Many of these workers were female immigrants from Asia .
Obviously the quest for profits allows such shocking matters to happen. As consumers our major concern is price, the cheaper the better. What we really should be concerned with is how the product was produced, its environmental impact, the wages and working conditions of the employees and, how much is the markup and for what reason.
We all need to spend more time looking beneath the glossy, airbrushed layers of the media: magazines, advertising, corporate logos, television and the internet.
I couldn’t agree more! I’ve always hated wearing rings period and diamond rings are so pompous.
On a sort of related note, rings are terrible in accidents and women can needlessly sever their fingers. I used to work in a law firm where the lawyers would sometimes ask me if I wanted to see gross liability photos…
Not to be the voice of materialism here or anything, but allow me to point out the obvious.
Diamonds are pretty.
Okay, this is me, fighting utilitarianism. But still, If the price is what matters to you, there are plenty of gems out there just as beautiful but not nearly as expensive.
Diamonds may be pretty, but they’re not popular soley because they’re pretty. Diamonds have been pretty for a long time (well, since they formed, millions of years ago), yet only widely popular in jewelry in the last 100 years. That’s more to do with brainwashing (call it advertising, trends, or peer pressure if you want) than beauty.