Patricia Allan’s article on retirement villages (Upfront, May 6) caused me to wonder if in fact retirement villages provide a system of wealth tax by stealth. In this case, wealth is handed over, without question or qualms, to private enterprise rather than the government. As Allan’s financial adviser said, they were making a “lifestyle choice, not a fiscal choice”. I suggest that many of these same people (and their children) would scream highway robbery if the government introduced an inheritance tax, a wealth tax or a capital gains tax.
But since it is private profit and private choice, we seem all too ready to hand over our wealth to a private enterprise whose only concern is returns to investors. I am not saying they do not care in their own way, but they care in order to increase those profits. In some cases, when people are forced to move from one retirement complex to another they pay twice.
Our 40-year experiment with a neoliberal business model and the pressure to privatise have led to the situation we are in now. Those who are well off can choose to go to a retirement
