Episode 70: Where's the Gray Mafia?

We all knew of the American Association of Retired Persons when we were kids, right? It was that super powerful interest group that got senior citizens all those cool discounts. It started before Medicare in 1958 as a way to secure health insurance for 65-year-olds (a lot of them teachers) who had been forced to retire, in order to keep them out of poverty. But now that it’s 2025 and no one can retire, what purpose to they serve?

AARP says it serves 38 million members, but what exactly does it do for them? It says it focuses on 50-year-olds and up, but you can join whenever you want. And its core demographic still seems a lot older than us midlifers, who have different health concerns, still worry about work and ageism, have elderly parents of our own, etc. Where’s the Not-Quite-As-Gray Mafia advocacy for us?

We don’t need to be sold crappy medigap insurance from United Healthcare, but we do want to know more about how to navigate Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security (before they evaporate, anyway). We want to prepare against medical bankruptcy, become experts in home ownership, and understand estate law.

Basically, we want a useful resource that makes us feel smarter for having read it, and which reminds us that we’re not alone in our ignorance and frustration.

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We’re interested in how the American Association of Never Gonna Retire Persons might look, and we’ll be revisiting this often. What resources matter most to you? How accessible is the information you have, and what reliable source(s) did you learn it from? And what questions are more important than Al Pacino’s Keys to Longevity?

Other links:

* ProPublica’s analysis of AARP’s balance sheet

* ICYMI: All you need to know about pączki.

* Paul Lynde is a national damn treasure.

* Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s podcast, Wiser Than Me

* Drinking alcohol raises your risk of getting several kinds of cancer