AARP question

[~RENEE~]

I've a question for you. I am turning fifty this coming Thursday and I have received AARP information. So my question is this. What are the pluses and minuses of AARP? And do the pluses outweigh the minuses?

 

[faroukfarouk]

I've a question for you. I am turning fifty this coming Thursday and I have received AARP information. So my question is this. What are the pluses and minuses of AARP? And do the pluses outweigh the minuses?

Hi; you might get discounts!

Then, maybe you already have a lot of plastic cards in your purse anyway...

 

[Albion]

You'll get those mailings for years to come, and they arrive from different offices in the USA, so I'm not sure what that's all about. The main "benefits" of AARP membership are reduced rates at motels and restaurants, etc. which aren't that wonderful or unique and joining yourself to one of the most liberal lobbying organizations in the USA. They worked hard, for example, for Obamacare because the AARP could then sell its own supplemental insurance policies.

 

[faroukfarouk]

You'll get those mailings for years to come, and they arrive from different offices in the USA, so I'm not sure what that's all about. The main "benefits" of AARP membership are reduced rates at motels and restaurants, etc. which aren't that wonderful or unique and joining yourself to one of the most liberal lobbying organizations in the USA. They worked hard, for example, for Obamacare because the AARP could then sell its own supplemental insurance policies.

I never found the discounts to be significant, actually.

 

[faroukfarouk]

PS: Up here there is a Canadian branch.

 

[Albion]

I never found the discounts to be significant, actually.

That's my take on them too. They're the standard kind that can be obtained from a variety of sources, including flyers and publications distributed to the general public by merchants' associations and tourist councils, etc.

 

[faroukfarouk]

That's my take on them too. They're the standard kind that can be obtained from a variety of sources.

On the other hand, I live up here yet have been accused of ppl down there of somehow being their political opponents because I had a facility to collect discounts.

 

[Albion]

By referring to or invoking AARP, do you mean? Yeh, I suppose that might happen, given AARP's reputation.

 

[faroukfarouk]

By referring to or invoking AARP, do you mean? Yeh, I suppose that might happen, given AARP's reputation.

I'm not even American and I don't live the US; and I don't see how I am somehow involving myself with someone's politics by collecting discounts.

The argument could be turned around, actually. Cubans could argue that anyone trading with an American company is compromising with Imperialism (I don't buy that argument, either, actually! )

 

[Albion]

I'm not even American and I don't live the US; and I don't see how I am somehow involving myself with someone's politics by collecting discounts.

I didn't say it was a great argument, just that I could imagine that what you reported could happen.

AARP is well known in some quarters for its political associations and doings, so if you invoke their name in some way, even just to get a discount, I am not entirely surprised to learn that someone may think you identify with or sympathize with those political views.

 

[faroukfarouk]

I didn't say it was a great argument, just that I could imagine that what you reported could happen.

AARP is well known in some quarters for its political associations and doings, so if you invoke their name in some way, even just to get a discount, I am not entirely surprised to learn that someone may think you identify with or sympathize with those political views.

It's interesting that a Canadian guy up in Canada started arranging vacation flights to Cuba... and he was banned from entering the US...

 

[Albion]

Is that interesting? International politics often works that way.

 

[Darkhorse]

They are unrelentingly liberal in their political support, so keep that in mind, however it aligns with your own political philosophy.

They have conservative competitors which have arisen in the last several years, most notably AMAC. I don't know much about them.