AARP

If you are over 50, then you have received email from the AARP. I receive so much email from the AARP that I have it shunted to my spam. One email recently got through. Barry Jackson, the "Grassroots Chairman" in the name of the AARP, asked me to donate $5 to stop the financial mess in Washington. The email said there were more than 40 million Americans just like me that were sick and tired of the financial mess we are in and the lack of financial accountability for the administration.

The email said, "For a $5 donation we could pass financial reform legislation." Of course, you could make your donation using a credit card. The AARP is a nonprofit corporation with absolutely no accountability or transparency. I defy you to pierce that corporate veil and get me their financials. Call them on the phone and see how far you can get into their financial details. Good luck. Nonprofit corporations often are just big business with a free ride on tax obligations. I may be a cynic, but I am an experienced one. I have nothing against AARP, but I would like to have the contract for their advertising. They are everywhere. Nonprofits get special rates on mailings so you get lots of stuff in the mail from them.

I am of the opinion that AARP- it used to stand for the "American Association of Retired Persons," now the legal name is just AARP-- needs to change their name. No one retires at 50 anymore. These days no one can afford it.

I do not know anyone that works for the AARP. There could be just one person and a huge email program generating all this spam. I do not know. What I do know is that this type of email blast fund raising works. And who knows where the money really goes? If only 1% of the people donate, AARP will have raised more than $2 million. Frankly, we are not going to get much financial reform for $2 million or most likely even $20 million. The bank executives get bonuses more than that. Of course, banks can not call them bonuses so they are characterized as retention compensation.

In a way I object to the AARP promising financial reform at any price. But I also object to the AARP becoming the default spokes-person for the over 50 crowd, which is growing every day.