I think what lots of people miss is the complementarity of relationships. You have to always ask yourself - what am I bringing to the table to a relationship?

I think what lots of people miss is the complementarity of relationships. You have to always ask yourself - what am I bringing to the table to a relationship? This is why status is a universally attractive quality. No matter what the circumstances, if someone dates someone of a high status, it elevates the dater's status as well. Basically, someone wants to go to their friends, mention who they are dating, and wants the friends to be jealous (not really, but hypothetically). Lots of people are frustrated because earning a good income used to bequeath status; however, with earnings gaps shrinking, income is no longer a good proxy for status as it once was. Also, status and income correlate, but are not the same. An artist working for Cirque du Soleil, for example, might have higher status than a Software Engineer at Google even though the latter might make significantly more money. One way to get an intuitive sense of status is the "wow" factor when you tell someone about your job (and another is the power you hold as part of that job, and how many people look up to you). Similarly, influencers have a lot of status independent of how much money they make via social validation.