It was the year 1966 when science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein who gave the world the acronym TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Nowhere is this more evident than in today’s dating scene. For most men, picking up a woman means picking up the tab, and it is something that can require some creative budgeting on his part.
The inflation indices used by economists are rigged to include the fact that the price of things like video games and cell phones have come down, but not many guys come off as particularly impressive if that’s all they can bring to the dating table. The fact is that meals and entertainment don’t come cheap, and are the minimum in standard dating fare.
A nice dinner, along with drinks, tax, tip and valet parking can run well over a hundred dollars. Taking in a movie for two, with popcorn and candy and sodas, can approach the $50 mark; concerts, plays or sporting events are far more expensive than that. Just going to a nightclub, depending on what and how much two people want to drink, can cost just as much as dinner. A combination of any two of those things can cost a fellow more than a month’s worth of groceries.
The question is whether or not the pursuit of romance is worth all that money. The industry standards say that it is. It may well be that a perfectly pleasant evening could be had sitting on a park bench sipping lemonade, watching the world drift by at its own lazy pace. But the competition for dates isn’t going to let that fly. Today’s single women have come to expect a guy to blow his paycheck on them. It isn’t their fault. It is society and a voyeuristic media that have brought us to this place.
For more information check out dating expert David DeAngelo.
