It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Buoyed（支持）by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job — thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don’t need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can’t take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against — discrimination by age.
56. We learn from the first paragraph that _______.
A ) offering senior citizens discounts has become routine commercial practice
B ) senior citizen discounts have enabled many old people to live a decent life
C ) giving senior citizens discounts has boosted the market for the elderly
D ) senior citizens have to show their birth certificates to get a discount
57. What assumption lies behind the practice of senior citizen discounts?
A ) Businesses, having made a lot of profits, should do something for society in return.
B ) Old people are entitled to special treatment for the contribution they made to society.
C ) The elderly, being financially underprivileged, need humane help from society.
D ) Senior citizen discounts can make up for the inadequacy of the Social Security system.
58. According to some politicians and scholars, senior citizen discounts will _____.
A ) make old people even more dependent on society
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