DY,
giving all girls dates might not help them ALL get married, and we will cross that bridge when we get there. (My guess is enough guys marry girls their age or older to alleviate the “gap”)
So you agree chasidim have a “age gap” albeit smaller but no crises. According to your numbers at 4% increase pr year even if 19 year olds are marrying 18 year olds, that should leave 4% of chassidish girls unmarried.
What you are missing is you are skipping to the end of the process whent he backlog is earlier.
Shidduchim is a process. A girl/guy wont get married until they o through the ENTIRE thing. You can not skip a step. I outlined the steps before I will do so again:
a. Shadchan suggests girls to the boys side.
b. Boy looks into girl(s) and agrees to go out with one
c. Girl who has been chosen looks into guy and agrees to go out with him
d. They go out for a few weeks
e. They get engaged
f. They get married
Do you have any quibles with the above outline?
assuming you dont. In your opinion/experience at which stage is the biggest problem. Obviously this is the first step to determine the cause of the “crises” (Sure their are those who get stuck at each step along the way for example engagements that dont make it to marriage e -> f, but i dont think anybody would say that is where all these single girls get stuck).
The article you quoted, and I agree, that the BIGGEST (not only) backlog is a -> b.
What do you think?
AZ feel free to answer too