Engagement Rings Cost 2 Month’s Salary? | CarterCast Clip

JOSH: Our next Google Autofill question, question #4: do engagement rings have to be expensive?
CARTER: The two month's salary thing came from DeBeers in the 40's. When the GI's were returning from the War, the diamond of the day back then was 1/3ct. That was the chosen…a 1/3ct, round diamond was the piece that was chosen to put in a ring and to be worn on the finger to celebrate love. But what also happened at the end of the War? Everyone had just survived a Depression. So the reason diamonds became a symbol, not just because of an ad campaign, though that most definitely helped. But it was because then they could always have something of value on their finger. Something that if times became hard again, it was something they could sell. So the two months salary came into play because at that time, a 1/3ct diamond was about two months salary for the average person..