Okay- this is it. Having responded below to the one point that UBI wanted me to respond to, I’m retiring from this thread…
UBI:
It we can add more boys to the dating pool
Or we can hold girls off from entering the dating pool
Or a combination of both
These efforts would facilitate easing the imbalance
Boys can be added by having boys begin dating younger
Boys can be added by encouraging the chassidishe boys to be welcomed into the non chassidishe dating environment
Boys can be added by efforts to make more male ballei Teshuva
Boys can be added by efforts to make more male geirim (look at china as a huge supply)
Boys can be added by efforts to have fewer boys go completely off the derech (i.e. marrying non religious girls)
Girls can be held off by encouraging them to not begin dating as young as they currently do
this could be accomplished in a variety of ways such as encouraging boys/shadchanim to consider close in age shidduchim therby fewer shidduchim for 18/19 year olds, or by having girls enter kindergarten 6 months later than currently so they will end their schooling 6 months later then currently, or some other ideas)
I could go on and on, but I think you get my drift
If the numbers are imbalanced because of the ages at which the non chassidishe girls and boys begin dating, then having the boys begin a bit earlier and the girls a bit later helps AND addresses the root cause of the imbalance. And our leaders have encouraged such efforts.
UBI- HERE GOES- for the sake of your being able to sleep: The reason why according to the age gap explanation of why the numbers were more balanced years ago is
a. Family sizes were smaller then (30 years ago, how many families had 10 kids?) and thus the year to year difference was not as significant then as it is now.
Ubi: I hope this satisfies you.
DY: i’ll leave you to carry it from here…. I think I’m done…