[TML] Personal Armor Noise was Re: Current USAF fleet

[Tom B]

>  This is just one area where I became an informed consumer but most of
>  us are not for most purchases and this lets very poor quality rule
>  over good quality. Why pay the price when you can't tell the
>  difference? This is turn leads to the death of well crafted or hand
>  crafted goods and artist.
>
>  This must translate into an adventure idea somehow.

I'm pretty sure the Canadian ones have serial numbers lasered into the
inside that are super small. This helps ensure your diamond isn't a
'blood diamond' or some bootleg. Assuming, of course, you believe this
can't be counterfeit or that you'd bother to verify it.

I looked at many cheap diamonds when I was last buying some. I'll say
this, cheap diamonds in a cheap setting looked cheap. Expensive
diamonds, well cut, in an expensive setting (that allowed plenty of
light to strike them) were dazzlingly beautiful. I think the setting
has as much to do with it as anything.

But much like buying a Porsche or a BMW, you are getting a slightly
better product but not commensurate with the price rise, buying
diamond jewelry from a reputable merchant costs, but people recognize
the name and associate it with quality.

Ultimately, the diamonds exist only to provoke an emotional reaction.
If you think about it, they're just a metamorphasized pencil lead or
piece of coal. Any value they have is utterly artificial. We can even
produce them artificially. The market is artificially manipulated.

For all that, what you pay for is the emotional reaction and sentiment
you expect to be attached to the gesture. Part of that reaction and
its scope is based on how much you paid for it.

Most pragmatic people (more often guys) see it as a waste of money
because it doesn't have resale value and is only a piece of rock and
that much money could buy lots of other fun stuff. But it isn't about
pragmatism. It is inherently a waste of money. And yes, you could buy
a big screen TV, a living room set, and maybe a new kitchen for that
price. But that's soooo not the point. Like tilting at lists to win a
lady's favour, it is a gesture of sacrifice. It is a sign that you
place a very high value on the person in question.

Ultimately, that's what you are paying for. And our social conventions
dictate that you can't just give them a $20,000 cheque. So, you go out
and buy the most God-awful expensive pencil lead you'll ever buy. And
hope things work out.

TomB