Critical Questions from The Economist

The Economist, as in touch with the struggles of everyday people as always, asks a critical question: Why aren’t millennials buying diamonds? The article claims that it’s about the exploitative conditions of their production, but let’s face it, it’s not. If it were, maybe there would be declines in chocolate and fish consumption due to their use of child and slave labor and a movement to promote Bangladeshi apparel workers’ unions. Of course none of that is happening in any way that affects the industry. The answer is that young people have no money because of a horrible economy, terrible student debt loads, and no good, stable future in an outsourced, franchised, automated, downsized, quarterly profit economy. So they aren’t buying diamonds. But getting at those issues would be far too close to home for The Economist. Better to just wonder about the declining fortunes of the diamond industry.