PSA by a Hopeless Romantic

I was always taught you should date for love. Find that inexplicable feeling someone gives you that makes you lose yourself in him or her and eventually find a better version of yourself. However, on several occasions now, friends have confessed that they aren't looking for "love" in the former sense, but they are looking for a partner that makes sense for them financially and politically. Now, none my friends are in politics, however, I keep reading all of these articles and posts about how love is dying etc. ... and I'm wondering if they drank the Kool-Aid? Or are hopeless romantics like me an endangered species?

Take friend #1: attractive, educated, reasonable stable and looking for someone that can fit in his cookie cutter vision. Love optional.
Take friend #2: good looking, type-A, currently seeking higher education and looking for someone that appreciates the obvious offerings AND can match her current expectations +.

I've purposefully chosen one male and one female so I don't read comments about "well it's a girl thing" later :) Both individuals come from great families, are very educated and looking for partners. So it's not to say they can't recognize love. I've argued at nausea the reason love is important AND recommended they watch the Notebook a time or two.

Unfortunately, I think my friends have given up. They don't see a benefit in looking for someone that will give them that half-baked cookie feeling in lieu of being stable and satisfying a vision that might/or might not work fundamentally. Partially, our economy is to blame; everyone in my generation is grasping their wallets and looking for efficient and successful ways to accommodate their dreams in reality -- and this same strategy has been applied to match seeking.
As a complement to all the articles that dictate the overabundance of work in our lives and ridiculous imbalance of work and life of course we have problems taking time to get to know someone for who they are and who they can be in one's future.

Given the current social dynamics and obligations, perhaps us hopeless romantics are on the endangered species list...but we won't go down without a fight (or at least we won't forget to release a movie this summer to inspire summer love).