The Economics of Conventional Courtship

There is a somewhat steaming debate occurring that I wasn't aware of, and I didn't realize that I hit that much of a nerve, but it is over more or less this idea of men (for lack of a better description) dropping out of the race or the "game" of dating. I'm not talking nerds or guys who got their first kiss when they were 30. I'm talking a trend I see of more and more "normal" guys just exiting the market and choosing not to marry let alone date.

This is just a comment I made to a poster which I wasn't intending on posting here, but after second thought, deemed it worthy of its own post.

Do realize that I do not tolerate any hatred or male-bashing. You either accept this is happening or at least is the opinion of thousands of men or not. And if you don't and start up with the victimization of sexism and misogyny BS your hours wasted on writing a response will be rejected;

...Having said that caveat, perhaps the best way to describe it is this;

The basic fundamentals, the basic laws and principles on which human attraction and courtship have been based, have been violated in that I think arguably for the first time, there is a progressively larger and larger percentage of the male population that no longer cares to pursue romantic or sexual interests. Be it because the proposition of chasing women in today's world is no longer appealing or that the alternatives of X-Box 360, cigars, cars, riches and never being poor due to too many "capitas" in "income per capita," are all that much more attractive, the basic rules of the game have changed with no real emotion or passion or desire having anything to do with it.

Men simply quit or are quitting in greater numbers. It's, again cold as this may sound, an economic decision.

The ramifications of this for conventional American courtship are quite earth shaking in that it more or less obsoletes it. If one of the sexes no longer cares to pursue the other, then the game is literally over. No more bar scene. No more marriage. No more children. No more family. No more divorce. None of it.

This is even more earth shaking when you think of the sociological/demographic ramifications. Declining birth rates is just one bit of evidence I think that eludes to this. Divorce rates would be another. But the consequences I would contend reach as far as the ultimate end of a generation/nation/culture/society as we know it. America will cease to exist in it's previous Cary Grant/John Wayne/Clint Eastwood form and turn into something we haven't seen yet nor can I fathom.

So for all the Megans and romantics out there, you have to understand, this isn't a choice, let alone anything anybody particularly likes. It's just what it is and people are responding to it. And not until the environment changes do I see a stop of the flood of men out of the market and back into traditional roles of father/husband, provider/bread winner.

The economics of it just isn't there.