I guess I would first draw a distinction between being poor and poverty. The first a relative value, the second is far more of an absolute. And real poverty as the people know who have gone through it is a soul-grinding, mind-deadening deal. Its not romantic, uplifting, or empowering - pretty much the exact opposite. It makes love hard indeed.
Second, the most common given reason in marriage breakups is financial problems, and that's very real. You can't be romantic if the phone is always ringing with bill collectors, and you can't sleep because you are worried about making the rent, having your power cut off or tying to choose if you are going to have to put gas in the car or eat next week.
As someone above said 'money can not buy happiness,' and I suppose that is true, but it sure can postpone unhappiness, and no mistake about that either. And unhappy people are not good lovers. So, in a way, it is a bottom line deal.
idealist and a romantic at heart
I think most people are, it gets hard when idealism and romantic notions run head long into reality, which has a very nasty way of rearing its ugly head and inserting itself at exactly the wrong time and place, and in a way that can not be ignored.
And, for the record, I'm not all sure that it has much to do with being intelligent. Outside of rock star/theater/criminal types, who get their money in a strange way - a couple of the richest guys I know never went beyond high school, and I sure know a lot of people with advanced degrees who are barely making it, if that. While I would have a hard time with anyone who used "like" and "hella'
as every other word in every sentence they spoke - "It's you know like dude was hella pissed" makes me cringe. I don't require my lovers to be able to turn over and have a nice discussion about quantum mechanics either, though its good when they can.