Law of Conservation of Masses

In a closed system, mass cannot be created/destroyed, although it may be rearranged in space, and changed into different types of particles.

I got my ears pierced recently so am now amassing my collection of bling blings. I spent a couple hundred dollars on diamond earrings, then got a pair of ten buck cubic zirconia ones. They cost much less but were just as pretty, if not more, than the diamond earrings. I could not tell the difference at all. So why is it that we are willing to part ways with huge amount of our resources over some okay looking rocks when we could get something exactly the same in appearance, but that only cost 1/100th as much...if cubic zirconia was rare and diamonds were littered all over, would we pay 10K for a cubic zirconia and 10 bucks for a carat of diamond? It seems it's all in our head...

I moved to the States from China in my early teens. The common immigrant narrative would be this: I escaped oppression and found the land of the free called America... but in all honesty, America could be just as oppressive in some ways...it's like one cage replaced another, just a different type of cage...Instead of Chairman Mao, Comrades DeBeers, LV and Tiffany have brainwashed me.

Feeling kind of tired... missing the days when I was a little girl, running around with dirt smudged cheeks and wild hair, but at least I was myself, and was accepted for who I am. It felt free back then.