[TADSLOS]

All the usual suspects:

Image, Power, Lust, etc....

I think most of these people just treat it as a business proposition and focus on the contractual aspect instead of the traditional aspect of love and committment. Kind of like a car lease...your mileage may vary.

[thoughtomator]

I think "mileage" is the key concept to understanding this phenomenon.

[summer]

Yeah, I was thinking about that aspect, too. I am guessing the Ron Perelmans of the world are not too concerned about having someone in their old age, because they know as soon as the current model gets some milage and years, they can trade in for a younger model. Or something like that.

That kind of attitude does seem to take the real romance out of the concepts of live-long love and comittment.

I think life-long love also requires a kind of maturity and discipline that some people, with or without money, may simply lack with respect to a [current] mate.