Shidduch Crisis - yea or nay?

Is there really a shidduch crisis?

There has been a lot of talk about this. It has become a catch phrase. I think it is terrible. When you call something a crisis, it scares people and makes them feel desperate. Girls and even more so, mothers of girls, start to feel this pressure - hey there is a crisis out there. so they may do things they wouldnt normally do.

Such as start dating at a younger age than they would ideally want to. After all, they get this feeling that the window of opportunity is from 19 - 20 and if they miss this, they will be in trouble. Even though they would prefer not to get married quite that young.

Or maybe they would go out with and marry someone that is not really what they were looking for, but that feeling of impending crisis pushes them. But this is a decision that should not be made that way, and they could easily live to regret it in a bad way.

Maybe there is a crisis; people seem to think that you need major amounts of money to marry off your daughter and promise to support them forever etc...or else they wont get a date. If that is true the crisis is greed, not shidduchim.

however as a word of encouragement to those out there, look at the mazal tov sections. We see poor as well as rich girls getting engaged. so if the problem is money, how are the poor girls managing to get married?

And another thing - if guys were only interested in rich girls, how come there is yad devora lkallah, an organization which says it is helping out hundreds of poor kallahs? if poor girls are not wanted, this organization and others like it would not exist would they?

so what exactly is the problem - anyone know? I am not anywhere near the shidduch scene- I am too old and my kids are way to young- but if anyone out there knows something about it I would be interested in your input.