In a conflict, there are always at least 2 parties involved, and trying to pinpoint toward 'the true source of the problem' is often oversimplifying the issue at hand. In your example, there is no clear cause and effect, and you have to put force behind your argument by using the notion sexy wife and young dashing rich dude. You also assume that the value of being fat, broke, ignorant, or divorcing is an inherent bad thing whereas what the other parties decided to do (wife + dude) is good. Well, in my opinion a relationship is about balance, and a healthy relationship (or in this case marriage) would not have let it come to this or would find a less dramatic, more peaceful solution if hey would decide to part. The wife, in your example, would have played an important role to make sure her partner wouldn't go in the direction she'd dislike (say: fat. broke, ignorant). Now, of course, if she is some kind of pre 20th century ****slave who got herself into a contract (marriage) instead of post-feminist, self-reliant woman who has an equal say in the relationship, that wouldn't happen. Fortunately, women nowadays have much more to say in relationships, at least in modern Western societies (sans Italy, apparently...) however this makes your argument weaker because you try to put the responsibility of both change of husband, sex appeal of wife, wife's attraction to dude, and (I'd say inherent) divorce on the husband. Even though he might be primarily responsive or have a big influence on all of this, it is really much more complex than that... IOW, applying logic is good for the sake of argument, but your example is inherently weak, as it includes too many human factors with too vague premises. Now, for this new marriage, I advice people to look at the partnerships Microsoft + SGI, Microsoft + Novell, heck even Microsoft + DEC and compare this with Machiavellian teachings. From what we understood from the deals, it seems as if the other party gets something out of it while it is in fact Microsoft who gets the side benefits not directly mentioned (such as FUD for their current MIPS/IRIX platform as I pointed out in a previous post). In this case, entire cross-platform path Nokia has been working on past years is now clouded with vagueness.