Yesterday’s post about Neil “Style” Strauss’ thoughts on how Game was being treated in the daytime media sparked an interesting conversation about the winners and losers of what can only be rightly called the de-regulated sexual marketplace. Although I posted my thoughts on the matter in the comment thread, I thought it deserved a post all its own, because of the points I strive to make therein.

Here it is:

Well, I see that there’s been quite a bit more said since I last checked in. A few comments are in order.

I think a major problem in this “2.0″ culture, precisely mirrors what we’ve been seeing going on in the financial markets over the past few years and counting-that the system as we know it is rigged in such a way that by its very definition, there can only be a few “winners”-and a heck of a lot of “losers”.

As yesterday’s Goldman-Sachs Senate hearings taught us, the current financial “game” is rigged to the bone, corrupt, you name it. Even GS execs called the deals they were selling “shitty” in their in-house emails. They know how jacked up things were and are, but that didn’t stop them from making a killing off of the sheer misery of others. That included competitors, as well as the so-called “little people”.

Basic economic rules say, that whenever you blow the doors off the marketplace, the divide between the haves and have-nots grows significantly wider. This is also true in the dating market. In fact, if you really want to understand exactly what happened and is happening on the dating front, all you need do is study Wall St.

The way things are right now, the only real “winners” of the dating world are those Men deemed by Women to have the goods to make them tingle, and the “fair to middling” Women who now can take full advantage of the “deregulations” that have taken place in the market-in the short term, that is. Barring STDs-a major concern, as Ms. Walsh has recently pointed out in an excellent series of posts at her blog, Hooking Up Smart-today’s Woman can easily enjoy a sex life that would make Anais Nin blush. But it can only last for so long-depending on when she gets started, 10, maybe 15 years at most, before the downsides of the market begin to take its toll. Nevertheless, *even with the high risk of STDs in the mix*, millions of Women can and will sign on for such a deal before the ravages of time set in and forces their hand to take things in a different direction.

Meanwhile, the biggest losers, at least in terms of timing is concerned, are the many Men who, due to all manner of seismic shifts over the past few decades, have little to no leverage anymore; they either are forced to accept Women who are clearly “below” them, try their hand at acquiring some Game, or sit the whole thing out, with the possible caveat that they may be able to grab up one of the Women who was a “veteran” of the Combat Dating Wars.

The other “losers” are the Women who, say a half century ago, had the beauty and other qualities, to be able to leverage all of it into a stable relationship and marriage. But today, she’s either forced to do what her fair to middling sisters do, and put out early and often; or, she chooses to basically take herself off the market, too. And no, the chances of her getting with one of the poor Beta guys above aren’t good at all, for a whole host of reasons. Please don’t try to use logic here.

But, here’s the trick-are you ready?

There will be NOTHING done about either market, the economic one or the sexual one. Do you know why?

Because, deep down, we like both just the way they are.

It is part and parcel of American life not only to be hyper-competitive, but to also expect the best and to think that we have the goods to make that happen. Of course, looking at things rationally, none of that makes any sense at all; but we don’t call ourselves the American Rational; we call ourselves the American Dream. No one really wants to “go back”, and that includes Women AND Men, both. What we want is to WIN-which, by definition, only a few can actually achieve.

So, don’t expect any GS execs, including “Mr. Fab” to do the Perp Walk anytime soon, if ever; and please do not get it twisted and think that their will be some kind of big Leave It To Beaver-style revival. Not. Gonna. Happen. Because human beings have an incredible capacity to BS themselves and others, do expect to see a lot of wings flapping around GS and wrt the sexual marketplace; but in the end, don’t fool yourself into thinking any changes that actually makes a difference will happen.

It won’t.

And that’s *just* the way we Americans like it.

I’m just sayin.

O.
The Obsidian