Some of the comments in this thread make me think if people actually date anymore.<p>People interact with other people that are close to them at any given time, childhood, college, career.<p>Marrying your sweetheart became rarer since people stopped marrying at the age of 18 in general.
Marrying your college GF became more rare because people are now marrying in their late 20&#x27;s to mid 30&#x27;s rather than early 20&#x27;s.
When people move on with their life they usually replace their previous social circles with new ones.<p>So if you are a banker your social circle will be made mostly from your new coworkers and maybe maybe 1 or 2 childhood&#x2F;college friends if they happen to still live near by.
So you are much more likely to marry another banker, lawyer, trader and the likes simply because those are the people you interact with on your day to day, and those are the people you&#x27;ll be more likely to see after work at less than official capacity.<p>It&#x27;s not like people actively look for spouses who make as much as they do, is that they more likely to meet a spouse from the same social economic circle.
Life isn&#x27;t some feel good romcom, yes sometimes some one might fall in love with a maid, a waiter, or meet their soul mate in the park when their dogs decides to run through the sprinklers who just happens to be a teacher but the likelihood of that happening by chance is about the same as a romcom winning the Oscars.<p>I won&#x27;t claim that some people don&#x27;t do some due diligence and plan engagements with every potential mate to the point where they cover financial compatibility but I would dare to say this is rare.
Other arrangements such as prenups are also much more likely to happen in such cases where there is financial inequality to begin with or when one of the partners has hereditary assets which they would like to protect.<p>P.S.
It&#x27;s a bit odd that not subsidizing some one these days will count as income inequality, also it&#x27;s important to point out that financial inequality between partners leads to infidelity and divorce.
Partners who make less money than their other partner are much more likely to cheat, especially if they become a full time or part time stay at home parent. Marriages in which one of the partners makes significantly more than the other also are 3 times more likely to end up in divorce.