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Do you mind being called a "senior" or senior citizen?...I have never liked these terms. How do you feel about it? Thanks...
It is what it is! Doesn't bother me one bit, especially when the word "discount" is part of the statement. The way I figure it, I've earned every one of the gray hairs on my head. I have arrived at "old timer" status after some people I know, and before others, but it's all part of a process that will go on for an eternity after I leave here. So, old? You bet, but still livin' it and still lovin' it.
It doesn't bother me a bit. I was walking into a basketball game the other day and someone that knew me pretty good yellowed "hey old man". That didn't bother me either.
My daughter used to call the 30 - 40 age group "early old." Now she is one of them! Like another poster said, being called senior is a whole lot better than being called dead.
I'm not quite to "senior" status yet (58) but being called "young man" is starting to put my knickers in a twist. That's always bugged me, and I hear it constantly in stores (and not just aimed at me).
First, I plead guilty to using senior discounts, mostly at restaurants (although I often forget to ask if they have one) but also at movie theatres. I think most of us take advantage of any legal way to save a buck - it's just natural.
However, I am philosophically opposed. As a group, seniors are no more likely to be impoverished than any other age group. In fact some statistics indicate we may be less so, in the aggregate. We take up the same space as anyone else in a movie seat or a bus seat. In a restaurant, yes, a 60 or 70-something is going to eat less than a 20-something, but that would only make a difference to the retaurant in the case of a buffet.
Of course, once the practice of discounting for seniors has been so well-established, then anybody who doesn't get on board (such as a retaurant) will risk losing that portion of their business. And can you imagine the political brou-ha-ha if a public transit system didn't have senior rates?
It is just blatantly unfair that younger people should be subsidizing us, at least the majority of "us" who don't need the subsidy. Sure, I can hear a few posters already: "Well Escort Rider, you don't have to take advantage of them if you don't want to." I agree, but that is not the point I am raising. I am raising a general point about overall fairness.
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Senior discounts - the philosophical issues
