The seminar arguing men should pair up with 80-year-old women
A seminar on pairing up with 80-year-old women sparks debate: age, wealth and the dating market viewed through the lens of economic calculation.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The seminar arguing men should pair up with 80-year-old women
A premise that sounds like an after-dinner joke has made its way into an Economics subforum with an uncomfortable question: what if the dating market had less romance and more spreadsheet to it? The trigger is a message advertising seminars on why men should prefer 80-year-old women over 25-year-olds. The provocation soon shifts to the terrain where these matters are truly settled: wealth, life expectancy and the distribution of riches between generations.
The discussion kicks off with a tweet from professor Gad Saad, known for his criticism of proge discourse, in which he jokes about the biological asymmetry: women in their twenties enjoy a moment of advantage in the dating market while millions of men rack up rejections, and when men's value rises with age, women's falls. The initial response pulls no punches and goes after the "experts". From there, the tone splits between locker-room banter and economic analysis.
The market value of a partner, by age
The argument underpinning the conversation is a kind of generational arbitrage. If female attractiveness depreciates over the years while male attractiveness appreciates, the optimal pairing becomes an asset-trading operation with different expiry dates. Some take the logic to the extreme and argue the smart move is to find a partner "at 96 and of course with no family, but with land and money". The joke is an old one, but the profitability wrapper gives it a fresh feel.
Against that reading, other messages tone things down and point out that relationship success isn't explained by age alone. They cite the case of actor Dolph Lundgren, who according to the information circulating in the conversation beat cancer with his partner's support. The figures offered: he is 1.96 metres tall, has an IQ of 160, still has his hair and holds wealth of between 15 and 18 million dollars. The implicit conclusion: when money, looks and health are present, age stops being the decisive variable.
From the joke to social unease
The conversation soon jumps from wisecrack to social diagnosis. The idea surfaces that there is "hardcore social engineering" aimed at ensuring only the lowest strata have children, and contemporary dating is described as "a riskier sport than skydiving without a parachute". These are opinions thrown out in the heat of the thread, with no data to back them, but they reflect an unease that goes beyond the joke: the feeling that the dating market has become hostile to the average man.
The real scope of the matter is also qualified. People with success and money, the argument goes, play in a different league. From that perspective, the seminar on 80-year-old women would be an intellectual provocation rather than practical advice. It is also noted that the author of the tweet himself, Gad Saad, is a professor famous for his criticism of proge, which invites reading his message as irony rather than a literal thesis.
What lies behind the interest in age in relationships
At the heart of the matter is a question demographers have been measuring for years: how age-gap pairings are distributed and what role economic resources play. The novelty is not the observation but the mental framework applied. Where biology or custom once ruled, the investor's language now prevails: present value, depreciation, risk and return. The result is a conversation that unsettles both sides, because it treats people as tradable assets.
The Lundgren case serves as an empirical counterpoint. An older man with substantial wealth and good physical shape does not fit the narrative of the depreciating male. The anecdote dismantles the general rule and reminds us that statistical averages hide widely divergent paths. The same goes for women: the generalisation about their declining value with age ignores personal and professional trajectories that do not trinc that script.
Is the seminar a provocation to laugh at the dating market, or a sign of the cynicism with which personal relationships are approached today?
A premise that sounds like an after-dinner joke has made its way into an Economics subforum with an uncomfortable question: what if the dating market had less romance and more spreadsheet to it? The trigger is a message advertising seminars on why men should prefer 80-year-old women over 25-year-olds. The provocation soon shifts to the terrain where these matters are truly settled: wealth, life expectancy and the distribution of riches between generations.
The discussion kicks off with a tweet from professor Gad Saad, known for his criticism of proge discourse, in which he jokes about the biological asymmetry: women in their twenties enjoy a moment of advantage in the dating market while millions of men rack up rejections, and when men's value rises with age, women's falls. The initial response pulls no punches and goes after the "experts". From there, the tone splits between locker-room banter and economic analysis.
The market value of a partner, by age
The argument underpinning the conversation is a kind of generational arbitrage. If female attractiveness depreciates over the years while male attractiveness appreciates, the optimal pairing becomes an asset-trading operation with different expiry dates. Some take the logic to the extreme and argue the smart move is to find a partner "at 96 and of course with no family, but with land and money". The joke is an old one, but the profitability wrapper gives it a fresh feel.
Against that reading, other messages tone things down and point out that relationship success isn't explained by age alone. They cite the case of actor Dolph Lundgren, who according to the information circulating in the conversation beat cancer with his partner's support. The figures offered: he is 1.96 metres tall, has an IQ of 160, still has his hair and holds wealth of between 15 and 18 million dollars. The implicit conclusion: when money, looks and health are present, age stops being the decisive variable.
From the joke to social unease
The conversation soon jumps from wisecrack to social diagnosis. The idea surfaces that there is "hardcore social engineering" aimed at ensuring only the lowest strata have children, and contemporary dating is described as "a riskier sport than skydiving without a parachute". These are opinions thrown out in the heat of the thread, with no data to back them, but they reflect an unease that goes beyond the joke: the feeling that the dating market has become hostile to the average man.
The real scope of the matter is also qualified. People with success and money, the argument goes, play in a different league. From that perspective, the seminar on 80-year-old women would be an intellectual provocation rather than practical advice. It is also noted that the author of the tweet himself, Gad Saad, is a professor famous for his criticism of proge, which invites reading his message as irony rather than a literal thesis.
What lies behind the interest in age in relationships
At the heart of the matter is a question demographers have been measuring for years: how age-gap pairings are distributed and what role economic resources play. The novelty is not the observation but the mental framework applied. Where biology or custom once ruled, the investor's language now prevails: present value, depreciation, risk and return. The result is a conversation that unsettles both sides, because it treats people as tradable assets.
The Lundgren case serves as an empirical counterpoint. An older man with substantial wealth and good physical shape does not fit the narrative of the depreciating male. The anecdote dismantles the general rule and reminds us that statistical averages hide widely divergent paths. The same goes for women: the generalisation about their declining value with age ignores personal and professional trajectories that do not trinc that script.
Is the seminar a provocation to laugh at the dating market, or a sign of the cynicism with which personal relationships are approached today?
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (15 replies).
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