Love it or Hate It – The Term ‘Senior Citizens’ [POLL]

A few months ago I received an offer from AARP -  the organization that offers discount rates to its members. The kids thought it was funny calling me an old man. My wife said I ought to at least look at it if will save us some money. Okay, hang on just a minute! I know the time on the wall is clicking and sooner than I want to admit it, I will be a senior citizen like so many other Americans.

But the most disturbing thing to me is to be called a "senior citizen." Who made that name up to begin with? Isn't there something much cooler that we could come up with other than "senior citizen?" Granted, I can't stop the aging process and getting AARP offers bi-weekly makes me realize I'm not getting any younger.

I guess it's just a matter of embracing what's to come and take advantage of the special discounts that senior citizens receive.

But some baby boomers regard the term “senior citizen” as something that describes their parents, not them. JoAnnn Ewing, senior services coordinator for the town of East Hampton, Conn. said, "There is definitely a different mindset between boomers and the World War II generations."

This means that in order to avoid offending the lucrative boomer customer base, businesses often replace the phrase “senior discount” with something else. For example, the AARP, which calls its membership of people 50 and over “members” instead of “seniors,” doesn’t offer “senior benefits” or “senior discounts,” but rather “member benefits.”

And since the older generation seems to have more money than the younger demographic, some question why seniors should be offered a discount and ask, "Is that fair?"

So, maybe next time I get an offer from AARP I'll at least take a look at it. As for the term "senior citizen," we still need to work on that. I vote for baby boomers!