Crazy Little Thing Called "_ _ _ _"? (Part I)

I wonder if we've replaced our hearts with ATM's . . . if the investment of our love must be shown as cash deposits . . . If this notion of "love" is an emotion, intangible without a means of material expression, should we not replace the phrase with "mutual economic advancement" or in even simpler terms "legal prostitution"?
Maybe it’s just me, and maybe I’m just jealous or angry or jaded or just plain old incapable . . . but this thing cannot be based on money alone . . . there has to be a reason why we are willing to hold each other up with stacks of paper that mean nothing without precious metals and a system that dictates the value of such. There has to be a reason why we think that pornography is wrong and marriage is right . . .
I mean, if a relationship is nothing more than a way to make banking easier, if “love” is nothing more than “I have sex with you because you pay my rent” or “If I pay this bill, will you let me get in your pants”, why don’t we just cut the shit and call a spade a spade? Why is it illegal for women (or men) to sell themselves to others for a matter of hours or even a night but it is commonplace for a woman (or man) to spend the rest of their natural lives locked into a sexual tug-of-war based on finance and social standing?
I can say, without a doubt that the majority of my relationships with women have been tainted with the notion that I would provide their every material fantasy. It is a sad actuality, but an actuality nonetheless. In fact, the minute, second, hour that I withheld funds or did not supply a certain service, the relationship crumbled as if built on shoddy foundation. ::hint,hint, nudge, nudge::
Furthermore, the purest of these relationship have been based on one principle, my ability to treat said women with an unparalleled respect . . . chivalry, if you will. This leads me to ask: Is chivalry truly dead or am I just obsolete? ::laughs::
Yet even this point ends bittersweet when I consider the fact that none of these relationships have been spiritually, sexually, emotionally, or financially fulfilling to me. The question now becomes: Is it [love] worth it?
I have not lived enough years or lifetimes to answer this question and this dissertation is far from over, but I leave these thoughts to be criticized openly, in hopes that through chastisement a definitive answer to an infinite query can be found . . .