Years ago I remember reading a health care reform activist's account of testifying at some congressional hearing or another. He showed up at the hearing and found the AARP rep sitting on the insurance companies' side of the aisle --- he had assumed as a non-profit advocate group for 50+'ers that they would surely be sitting on the people's side. A colleague filled him in: Oh, you didn't know. They're an insurance company. {all paraphrased from ancient memory, but you get the gist}
Every once in a while, this would pop into my head and I would do 120 seconds of research and move on since I never found anything substantial on the topic.
Well, now that AARP is on my #### list for all of this unsolicited BS they send me in the postal mail that I have to haul off the the landfill all the time, I renewed my effort to find out the truth about them. After all, I found it hard to believe that complete strangers cared so much about my health and well being that they send me all of this mail begging me to join them so they can help make my later years :roll-eyes: so much better than it otherwise would be without them.
lo and behold, through the kindness and wisdom of Forbes:
The entire Forbes piece is worth a read since it documents how AARP helped manipulate, ah heck, the title says it very well:
How the AARP Made $2.8 Billion By Supporting Obamacare's Cuts to Medicare
Interesting to note that their Wikipedia page almost reads like a brochure for them. So, much for the 'open' model of documenting fact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARP
So, do yourself a favor and throw the next renewal notice in the trash can, if you're a current believer.
P.S. Another thing that is always fun to do when you come upon one of these so-called non-profits, is to pull their recent IRS FORM 990. These are required to be filed by law and are public information. One required section outlines the salaries and compensation of the top people in the organization. It seems that many people just assume that since it is a non-profit, the org is doing good work, is a good steward of the money and pay themselves modest salaries. They're "NON-PROFIT" after all. Unfortunately, many times people use these legal entities to make a lot of money for themselves.
I'll pull just the highest salary + comp for their 2014 filing:
Addison B. Rand, CEO until 9/1/2014: $1,628,832. + 69,457.
= $1,698,289.
Every once in a while, this would pop into my head and I would do 120 seconds of research and move on since I never found anything substantial on the topic.
Well, now that AARP is on my #### list for all of this unsolicited BS they send me in the postal mail that I have to haul off the the landfill all the time, I renewed my effort to find out the truth about them. After all, I found it hard to believe that complete strangers cared so much about my health and well being that they send me all of this mail begging me to join them so they can help make my later years :roll-eyes: so much better than it otherwise would be without them.
lo and behold, through the kindness and wisdom of Forbes:
The entire Forbes piece is worth a read since it documents how AARP helped manipulate, ah heck, the title says it very well:
How the AARP Made $2.8 Billion By Supporting Obamacare's Cuts to Medicare
Interesting to note that their Wikipedia page almost reads like a brochure for them. So, much for the 'open' model of documenting fact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARP
So, do yourself a favor and throw the next renewal notice in the trash can, if you're a current believer.
P.S. Another thing that is always fun to do when you come upon one of these so-called non-profits, is to pull their recent IRS FORM 990. These are required to be filed by law and are public information. One required section outlines the salaries and compensation of the top people in the organization. It seems that many people just assume that since it is a non-profit, the org is doing good work, is a good steward of the money and pay themselves modest salaries. They're "NON-PROFIT" after all. Unfortunately, many times people use these legal entities to make a lot of money for themselves.
I'll pull just the highest salary + comp for their 2014 filing:
Addison B. Rand, CEO until 9/1/2014: $1,628,832. + 69,457.
= $1,698,289.
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I throw away everything AARP sends me anyway because they are a fairly worthless organization and basically a shill for the Socialist Democrats, but I didn't know that they were actually a for-profit business. How are they getting nonprofit status and tax breaks if they are actively selling something?
