  Spontaneous bond dimerization (BD) was cojectured to be central to the
physics of the cuperate superconductors. Based on ladder models and numerical
simulations, we examine the quantitative issue of whether the energy scales
involved are sufficient to influence the mechanisms of pairing, stripe
formation, pseudo-gap, and quantum critical `normal' state phenomena. We
present preliminary evidence that maximum gap scales derived from BD are always
too small.
