Well, the media caters to young people because they buy like crazy.
And the government caters to the elderly because they vote like crazy.
So the rest of us reside in the middle, in un-cool, taxed-out purgatory. What sucks is being middle age.
Young people swallow
Old people running credit accounts at a hardware store? Indicia of a healthy S&M sex life if you ask me. Of course a young clerk wouldn’t understand such things.
They shouldn’t be asking, period. That number is not for identification purposes and was never designed to be, hence the incredible quantity of identity theft.
Old people used to fantasize about PVC pipe?
Um, you kind of HAVE to give them to your employer. That’s the whole point of Social Security?
:wally
Judging by my Mum who is now 73, I think old people are just a stronger version of their young selves. I agree with most of you, but they do change as they get older - their personalities seem to get more entrenched, inhibitions are less obvious?
Whew! I thought this was going to be another Uekte-style “hate old people” thread. Glad it took a less strident tack. I’m 60 myself (hence my username), and I care for a 94-year-old. I’m usually pretty nice to clerks, but if I’m having a bad day and the clerk gives me a hard time I guess I could get a little peevish. My soon-to-be 95 ward can be pretty brusque herself, but she’s always been that way. I don’t think age has much to do with it.
On the SS number thing: the county medical service where I live uses my SS number as my medical ID number. That’s their policy, and if I want their service I have to let them use it. But I never show my social to someone for a credit sale. By law, they can’t insist on it as ID, and I just tell them that and say no. I’ve never had to give up a purchase on that account.
I’d have to say most of the older people I come into contact with are pretty nice folks. There will always be exceptions, but, in general, I like old people. (Shhh…I like younger people, too, but I have some reservations about teenagers.)
Only if they fail to wear their dentures to the dinner table.
[sub]::Ducks, runs, &c.::[/sub]
dammit, drew, even after 2 “suck” comments in the thread already, I thought it STILL would be funny to post a denture thread, but SOMEONE had to beat me to it 
Wouldn’t your employer need it so that they can pay into the system?
In canada SIN cannot be demanded for ID. I do credit checks a hundred times a day. We can ASK, but we cannot demand. We (as policy against fraud) need 2 pieces of ID (DOB, Credit card # or SIN, any 2).
I don’t find old people much of a problem. They might be harder to educate when you’re trying to explain something difficult like a cell phone bill, but I don’t have many issues with them. The middle aged people with 4 bankruptcies are the fuckers who like to bitch when we deny them a cell phone without a security deposit.
What I hate about old people is when they reminisce. Why, back in my day, they never did that.