How many people have ever liked it? Hasn't it been one of the few avenues available for lots of people to pursue things they couldn't without financial help? What's a viable alternative?
My point was just that marrying someone to financially support you used to be culturally accepted, maybe even expected, and now it is less so.
Especially since most marriages can't afford to keep the household on a single income anymore anyways.
Man marrying his wive to financially support him was accepted and expected? Really?
Before the 20th century marriage and inheritance was practically the only way to climb the social ladder and acquire meaningful wealth. It’s basically half of what Balzac wrote about.
Among people I know who are my age, there is a real attitude that they should not have to attach themselves to another person. They want to self actualize without compromise, so if marriage (or honestly, even monogamy) is not something they want they shouldn't have to do it.
Part of this mentality is totally fair. No one should be forced to marry, or live monogamously or anything else if they don't want.
Where the disconnect lies is the self actualizing without compromising thing. They are often angry at the world because they cannot live their way, but often finding a supportive partner would allow them to, or at least a lot closer to what they want than when they are struggling on their own.
This is absolutely not in line with how most people I interact with seem to view marriage nowadays, especially not my fellow university students back when I attended.
From my perspective I think younger people mostly seem to view marriage as restricting, or backward and outdated, not an opportunity for something better.
I especially think younger people don't like the idea that in order to have freedom to pursue the things you love, you might need to marry someone who supports you financially. Otherwise you will be too busy financially supporting yourself to have that same freedom.