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Over
at USA Today, Don Campbell is hoppin' mad about the economic injustice,
nay reverse "ageism" that is the senior citizen discount. He
opines:
... the question is, why should someone who is 50 or 55 and likely to live to 85 or 90 be considered a "senior citizen" worthy of special treatment?
I've now passed all the age benchmarks for senior status, and I'm committed unequivocally to a free market, but I think that such discounts are absurd, illogical, and helping fuel the growing economic divide between struggling younger generations and a self-obsessed, mostly well-to-do, older generation. To me, these "deals" add insult to injury to the very people who are being saddled with trillions of dollars in debt to support entitlement programs for the elderly, such as Medicare and Social Security.
I also find them to be a delightful source of amusement when they pit vanity against financial self-interest as cashiers try to guess your age and customers ponder admitting in public that they're a certain age in order to save a few nickels.
I was in line behind a woman at a grocery checkout in Atlanta a couple of years ago on a Wednesday, the day the store gives people age 60 and over a 5% discount. When the cashier said to the woman, "And are you taking our senior discount today?" the woman exploded: "Don't insult me like that! I'll have you know I'm 54 years old!" (She looked closer to 64 than 54, if you ask me.)
More recently, I was in one of those trendy organic food stores when the checkout clerk said to me with a big smile: "May we offer you our military or wise-man discount?" I had no idea what defined "wise man," so I just smiled back and said, "Ma'am, I am wise beyond my years." (I later found out you became "wise" at 60.)
What do you think? Should senior citizen discounts be banned? Answer after you get off Don's lawn: Link - via Moneyland
Photo: Older Than Dirt T-Shirt from the NeatoShop
This is what happen when superheroes get a little long in the tooth, and grow so old that they aren’t quite as super any more. This series of paintings by Swedish artist Andreas Englund shows the fate of all non-immortal beings-wrinkles, weight gain and a feeling that tackling mundane tasks is like performing mini feats of heroism.
Link -via ComicsAlliance
Charles Jenkins of Indianapolis, Indiana was awakened from sleep Tuesday morning by a loud crash. He found an intruder climbing through the living room window.
Jenkins said he grabbed his cane and hit the intruder in the head. That seemed to stun the would-be burglar, who quickly jumped back outside through the window.
Jenkins said the suspect ran to a truck out back behind the house, where he believes another suspect was waiting to drive them away.
Jenkins is 70 years old. Police are looking through recordings on his security cameras for evidence against the burglar. Link (with video)
Who says that old people can’t dance? Here’s The Awesome Threesome performing at Leisure World (a retirement community) in Florida.
Check ‘em bust a move (without busting a hip, thankfully) to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean: Link [embedded YouTube]
A 96-year-old Taiwanese man finished a master’s degree program in Philosophy after being told "he was too old to continue as a volunteer at a local hospital." Known as "Grandpa Chao", this old man was able to compete with younger
students by pulling all-nighters before exams.
“I was bored after I left the hospital,” Chao said Thursday. “I don’t play mahjong or have other hobbies. I felt I had to do something with my life.”
Chao said the most difficult part of his studies was coping with a poor memory.
“I can’t remember things as well as my fellow students,” he said. “So before a test I would wake up at midnight and study all night. That way, the material was still fresh in my mind when the test began.”
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