[ThisLittleLightofMine]

I think you are wrong, I think the vast majority of seniors belongs to AARP in name only in order to receive discounts on insurance and other perks, BUT I don't believe most seniors realize what AARP does with their dues, perhaps it is time to force unions and lobbying groups into disclosing what they support (candidates etc.) and people should also have the right to refuse to allow their dues to be spent on candidates and social issues they disagree with. One more note baby boomers are the generation that gave us legalized abortion, they killed their "unwanted" children and now there are not enough of us to support their "lifestyles". Just my opinion.

[Judith Anne]

You make some good points, on some I agree, and on others I don't.

But I'm with you on one thing: give us back what we paid in, and shut the damn thing down.

We will never have any idea about the AARP membership numbers, because they give memberships away, often to people who don't ask or care. They won't release their numbers. Modern Maturity magazine has a stated circulation of 22,000,000. I don't know what the US population figures are, of people 50 and over.

And the boomers DIDN'T give you legalized abortion, the Supremes did.

[Judith Anne]

Okay, the AARP claims 35 million members. From their site at:

http://www.aarp.org/leadership/Articles/a2003-01-13-aarphistory.html

US citizenship is not a requirement, over 40,000 are members who are citizens of other countries. Their budget is supposedly around 600 million a year. Main office is in DC, where else?

There are 77 million boomers, so you are likely close in your estimation that half are AARP members. I don't like that, but I also don't necessarily believe their figures. I'll have to do some more looking around...