Money For Nothing: Do we want too much?

[pascal1976]

The women hot/men rich standard is a sign of social decline. Both are legitimate signifiers of a good mate, I suppose, but if this is what it ultimately comes down to, society is in a pretty sorry state. Wealth and attractiveness have always played a big role in determining marriages, but used to be bolstered by a lot of other factors (like family alliances or social position) that were unquestionably overconstraining and stifling (read any Jane Austen novel, for instance), but helped ensure social stability. Without it we are just a buch of atomized materialistic pleasure-seekers living in isolated little boxes and getting most of our pleasure digitally or chemically. Sad indeed...

[Posh]

The women hot/men rich standard is a sign of social decline. Both are legitimate signifiers of a good mate, I suppose, but if this is what it ultimately comes down to, society is in a pretty sorry state. Wealth and attractiveness have always played a big role in determining marriages, but used to be bolstered by a lot of other factors (like family alliances or social position) that were unquestionably overconstraining and stifling (read any Jane Austen novel, for instance), but helped ensure social stability. Without it we are just a buch of atomized materialistic pleasure-seekers living in isolated little boxes and getting most of our pleasure digitally or chemically. Sad indeed...

This is intriguing if you mean what think you mean, which you may not. It sounds as if you think that unless you marry for those old social norms, which ensure social stability read: class stratification (e.g. a caste system), then the marriage is essentially worthless, a sign of societal decline if nothing else. Is this what you mean? Are those mores the sole purpose of marriage or should they be the sole purpose?