Alarming Statistic

More than 50% of the adult women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are single (either never been married, divorced, or widowed). If marriage is indeed an eternal principle, and an ordinance that can only be performed during mortality, then some spiritual being is winning a battle and I'm thinking it probably isn't Cupid or Aphrodite.

If one considers dating from a Marxist or economic perspective, our supply of commodified women far exceeds the demand, which reduces itself constantly by external and internal forces. The market for single LDS women resembles that of menhirs (or anvils, for a more modern equivalent). Each buyer (man) only requires one (or one at a time, anyway, and although the lifespan of the product is sporadic and certainly not guaranteeable, I doubt the majority of buyers ever require a second), and the population of men who abstain from this "menhirism" for any one of several reasons (homosexuality, reduced sex drive, lack of faith, cowardice, laziness) grows.

Beyond the growing population who denounce participation in the demand, a large percentage of the consumer population are certainly involved in the market. Most single men of my aquaintance are constantly shopping or browsing. They adopt menhirs for a temporary duration, but are often somehow frustrated or unsatisfied (a quirk of the market being the ability of the product to reject the purchaser).

A menhir once properly contracted and owned becomes property in perpetuity (subject to contract laws), and although break-downs occur, they will eventually be replaced with more permanent models (not subject to erosion or damage). Owners who have replaced irreparably non-functioning models with other non-permanent models will eventually find all units contractually replaced, and become owners of multiple units in perpetuity.

On a micro-scale, though, the introductory statistic proves that there are large numbers of unsold models on the market, as well as those that have been used, abused, or leased. These units are left to sell themselves as best they can while newer batches are in production. The market is flooded, and production has never been cost-effective. It becomes less so on a constant slope.

One solution might be to create a new market for the functional parts of the unsold models. Although a menhir's refusal to fulfil its primary function when given a viable opportunity is counter-productive and offensive to the original designer (think "convent"), when the menhir has no opportunity for primary fulfillment, it might be given some secondary fulfillment.
Although they must, on the whole, be defective, each unit must have acceptable parts which can go to increase the marketability of more viable models (hair, skin, teeth, pancreas, etc). Another solution might be to turn functioning models into pop-art (my favorite solution). Although the units themselves cannot fulfil their intended function, they might still be means for artistic or sensory expression. Russian artists have long explored the relationship between utility and art.

A third solution resembles a landfill more than anything. These unsold models can herd together, and be left to their own objectives, turning away from the market entirely and into what must externally resemble a convent in the same way that the United Order resembles socialism.

Unfortunately, morality dictates that unsold models should always be considered as still marginally marketable to a less-discerning buyer-crowd, which renders large portions of these solutions outside the realm of practicality.

Enough of this for now.