Or they were raised in a country where this was actually an effective means to get a wife.
My parents come from the Middle East, so to them it makes sense that getting a decent job with a house and money would allow you to marry a decent woman since a woman's marriage option is usually restricted or at least regulated by her parents in some way. They don't understand that in the West, where women earn their own income and aren't told who they can date by their parents, they no longer have to settle for men who their parents want them to date or settle for a man with income. They can date who they are sexually attracted to.