I've joked to friends (but would follow through) that if they introduce me to my future wife I would give them 5k. That is such a small amount of money to help you find the most important person in your life.

I think its a bit worse to pay for dates/access which is the entire premise of dating apps, matchmakers, clubs etc. because those dont have a vested interest in helping you find anything long and successful. In fact, its the opposite.

In my experience of human society, marriage is extremely transactional. It's modern legal form was invented largely to legally codify how wealth transfers related to marriages would be handled, essentially.

A marriage in today's society is more of a business partnership than anything else; infidelity is as common as not. Often in wealthy circles joint business ownership precludes divorce as well, so enter the side partners. Typical aristocratic nonsense, which is what you get with Empires.

The transactional nature of it doesn't bother me. Plenty of cultures and people do arranged marriages and stuff like that. It's just, how he has a lottery for freelance head hunters, a bounty, it's gross.