Love is a commercial tool

The experience of romantic love is continually co-opted by capitalist forces, with an encroaching sense of commercialisation infecting almost every part of the 'experience' of love. The milestones of a romantic relationship are expected to be celebrated monetarily, with fancy dinners and gifts. Valentines Day, a day originally named to commemorate a Christian martyr,^[1] is now a day worth over $20 billion to the U.S. economy.^[2] Weddings, previously religious ceremonies, are now a $161 billion dollar industry in the U.S., with increasingly extravagant ceremonies considered rites of passage.^[3] The capitalist market is becoming increasingly intertwined with the emotion of love. People 'in love' are supposed to purchase certain things to prove that they are actually in love, focussing more on proving emotions to the outside world than to each other. The lines between commercialisation and authentic feeling are increasingly blurred, with amounts of money spent equated to depth of feeling. The 'sanctity' of love has been irreversibly impaired, and it is now nothing but capitalism-infected falsities.

[P1] The institutions and milestones associated with love are increasingly commercialised. [P2] Love is no longer an authentic feeling, but a reflection of capitalism.