Oh God, you sound like my bf when he's being terribly annoying in an effort to incite a reaction from me.
I had a roommate in UG whose mother is an MD and father is a student driver educator. Let's just say, it was extremely obvious as to who wore the 'pants' in the relationship. Unfortunately, in many relationships, person with greater income = person with greater power. I guess gold diggers don't care if they're held inferior as long as the money keeps flowing, but it diminishes one's integrity, and whoever encourages this type of behavior is extremely messed up in the head, or perhaps just had a lapse in judgement.
But in materialistic, capital America, $$ = fitness; therefore, marrying for money (not love) is justified. (Although I'd say genetics is important too, but no one thinks like that anymore).