| MercatorNet | June 2, 2017 |
The engagement ring loses its sparkle
Whoever said 'Diamonds are forever' hadn't reckoned with the millennials.
Few people know that the idea “diamonds are forever” and the “rule” that a man should spend at least two months' pay on his fiancee's engagement ring were both brilliant strokes of marketing genius, but they are just that.
How unromantic!
However, it seems that millennials are throwing a spanner in the works when it comes to the future of the diamond industry. According to The Telegraph, “their more cost-conscious and individualistic shopping habits, along with their growing demands for more ethical sourcing of products, have led to diamonds losing their sparkle.”
The article points to research by insurance house, Allianz, which showed men no longer pay two or three months’ pay on engagement rings. The reasons are that among other things middle-class couples are “preferring to save their money for future school fees, spiralling house prices and adventurous holidays.”
Kantar Retail senior analyst Anusha Couttigane agrees with the research findings observing that, "a generation of marital age people are now prioritising other things such as weddings, housing and the cost of having children, rather than splashing out on a really expensive ring.” Whether this is proof that millennials are less materialistic, more practical or less romantic remains to be seen.
People are putting off marriage for longer than ever before, simply remaining unmarried, opting for long-term live-in partners or bouncing from one relationship to another with no strings attached.
While the reasons behind their choices may vary, the diamonds and the marriages they have seen fail the “forever” test must at least have some bearing on how young people view marriage and everything associated with it, including the ring.
With all eyes fixed on the here and now, young people are making less time for forever than ever before. The diamond industry may simple be feeling the symptoms of western societies indifference to the institution of marriage, which once cradled the bed rock of society, the family.
June 2, 2017
Leading our varied menu of articles today is an account of transgender politics in the Canadian province of Alberta as it affects schools, and how this change has been handled by one particular family.
Wayne Ottenbreit is a marriage and family therapist in Calgary as well as a guidance counsellor in one of the city’s school districts. He writes, as one would expect of such a professional, in a calm but forthright manner about the personal and professional risks of resisting an irrational but powerful movement, especially when others who can see its wrong-headedness are too afraid to say so.
But he also sets out reasons for hope and suggests a way forward:
In tending our own patches of soil the most effective tool is confident courage - exercised in relationships that educate hearts and minds. This is the antithesis of withdrawal from culture. This is to enter into the messiness of human living and encounter dissimilar others, with charity and truth harnessed together.
It’s a sturdy and wise article and I suggest you will profit far more from reading it than from any of the thousands of articles on offer right now about Donald Trump’s shock-horror repudiation of the Paris Climate Change Accord.
Carolyn Moynihan
Deputy Editor,
MERCATORNET
| How gender became political, and the political became personal
By Wayne J. Ottenbreit
One family’s engagement with the new identity culture.
Read the full article |  |
| Senator Sasse has questions and answers about freedom and virtue
By Sheila Liaugminas
Now that his provocative new book is out, more people are noticing.
Read the full article |  |
| ‘Why I am a Jew’
By Michael Cook
A leading British rabbi explains his faith in a short animated video
Read the full article |  |
| The Lego Batman Movie
By Rachele Mocchetti
Action, humour, and unrelenting self-irony.
Read the full article |  |
| Facebook enters the population mapping game
By Marcus Roberts
Does this mean census forms are a thing of the past?
Read the full article |  |
| Grandmother bridges generation gap
By Jennifer Minicus
Henry likes to take his time.
Read the full article |  |
| A Christian abortion doctor? On the ignorance, arrogance, and violence of the Pro-Choice cause
By Charles K. Bellinger
An abortion doctor's inadequate apologia.
Read the full article |  |
| The engagement ring loses its sparkle
By Helena Adeloju
Whoever said 'Diamonds are forever' hadn't reckoned with the millennials.
Read the full article |  |
| Re-opening the apology book
By Raymond J. de Souza
Canadian Premier Trudeau wants (another) papal 'sorry' to First Nations people.
Read the full article |  |
| It’s a hashtag world of sentiment
By Barbara Lilley
But does it do any good to the victims we are so publicly sorry for?
Read the full article |  |
| Exclusive: Trump to get Nobel Peace Prize
By Michael Cook
Norwegian committee has buyer regret after Obama experience
Read the full article |
MERCATORNET | New Media Foundation
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The engagement ring loses its sparkle
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