good.jew, I agree. I haven’t read the spinoff thread on ben Torah yet but the problem is that in this culture, boys will stay in full time learning because they have to. These boys are the good boys, who will raise beautiful families, be a credit to their Creator, families, and communities, but as long as they’re learning with some level of geshmak (or even past that, as long as they’re not noxious to their environment) they stay in learning. They need to get married to get permission to leave, go to school part time, etc.
There are, as time goes on, fewer and fewer working boys with a yeshivish mindset (i.e. seriously koveia itim, choices for entertainment). Now don’t get me wrong, these are great guys, tiyere yidden in my book, who deserve great girls, but the option of shtark ben Torah-working boy is no longer seen as viable by many.
How grateful we all must be for the relative menucha and affluence Hashem gave us to recoup, from the churban of Europe and American assimilation, but we can’t deny that we may need some paradigm shifting.