Pac: 100% totally solvable. And it’s solvable for the grade that just returned from seminary not just for the “next generation”.
In addition the sooner it is solved the greater trickle up effect there will be that will alleviatge the difficulties facing the girls who have already been dating for a bunch of years.
from a numerical standpoint: to even our the numbers of all the new daters for the year 2011, (i.e. all girls and boys who planeed to start dating in 2011) all we would need to do is to close the age gap by a bit more than one month on average. If we close it by more than that we will alleviate the backlog that already exists. (i will not get into a mathematical discussion on the topic, but those are the numbers to solve this year and each years aprox 10% discrepency)
of course the public can NOT be micro maninpulated to create a result of on average one month closer in age shidduchim in the year 2011 vs. the year 2012, but as a measure of what needs to be accomplisehd we need to continuously close the average age gap by one month year after year until on average the age gap is about one year.
The critical point here is AVERAGE AGE GAP. This doesn’t mean that there will be no marriages of boys significantly onlder than the girl. Of course there always will be such shidduchim. But if we are succesful that more and more close in age shidduchim take place so that the average age continuouisly movers closer and closer, we will win the battle and save the girls.
It is doable and it is happening already and hopefully it will continue.
Pac: if you want to reinstitue polygamy to help the girls who are already older (whatever age that is lets) then see if klal yisroel and their leaders will accept it.