“Historically, diamonds represented wealth and exclusivity, accessible primarily to the affluent. However, technological advancements, particularly synthetic diamond production via High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) methods and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) technology, have” made diamonds much more affordable to ordinary Americans.
The Doomslayer explains:
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), for example, is a technique for creating synthetic diamonds by depositing carbon atoms from a carbon-rich gas onto a substrate. In this method, a diamond seed crystal is placed in a vacuum chamber filled with gases such as methane and hydrogen. When heated to very high temperatures, these gases break down, and carbon atoms accumulate layer-by-layer on the seed crystal, slowly forming a diamond. This process enables precise control over diamond purity, size, and quality, making it highly efficient and cost-effective compared to traditional diamond mining methods.
Not only have synthetic diamonds become more widely affordable, but they have also placed a downward pressure on natural diamond prices. ‘Natural diamonds cost 26% less in shops than two years ago, a drop during a time of high inflation that would be extraordinary were it not dwarfed by the poor fortune of their identical twins, lab-grown diamonds, which are now 74% cheaper than in 2020.’
Furthermore, synthetic diamonds may appeal to modern consumers by offering ethical and environmental advantages over mined diamonds. Instead of sourcing diamonds from some of the world’s bloodiest conflict zones marked by human rights abuses and environments destroyed by primitive forms of mining, today’s diamonds increasingly come from the lab.
Other things have become more affordable over time as well. Gasoline became more affordable even as the number of cars using gasoline multiplied 30-fold and world population tripled.
Despite recent rises in egg prices, eggs are more affordable than they were a century ago.
Chicken has also become much more affordable. A century ago, it was a luxury for many people to eat chicken. As The Daily Record notes,
In 1928, ads for Herbert Hoover’s presidential campaign promised, “A chicken in every pot.”…What many people don’t know is that when Hoover made that promise 80 years ago, having a chicken in the pot for a Sunday dinner really was a big deal. You see, chicken was on the expensive side back then, and having a chicken dinner would have been considered a bit of a luxury. Why was it expensive? In a nutshell, because grain was expensive to purchase, and most farmers were “cash poor.” (Sound familiar?!) They had land, animals, food for themselves, etc., but raising chickens to sell as meat was more expensive than many farmers could justify. The occasional ill-fated rooster or worn-out laying hen was about all the chicken most people enjoyed. A good chicken dinner really was a treat! Enter science, and World War II. At about the same time the war began to make other sources of meat scarce, science was discovering new ways to “better” house, feed, breed, ship and store chickens. (Don’t forget that electricity and refrigeration were not widespread throughout the nation’s rural areas until well into the 1930s and beyond.) All of these advances served to make chicken more plentiful, popular and cheaper.
A genetically-modified chicken lays eggs that people allergic to eggs can eat. Genetic engineering recently produced pork and bacon that people who are allergic to pork can eat.
