Hard to budget for retirement

Young people have been given so much help

Unfortunately economics commentators such as Adam Creighton won’t appreciate what is required to experience a reasonable standard of living in retirement until they retire (“Boomers’ Howard-era tax breaks punishing the young”, 12/2).

If you retire your income drops dramatically. You do not get pay rises. You do not get to work overtime or get a second job. You are exhausted after working for 40 years. You finally get an opportunity to sleep in, travel a bit and read a newspaper over a morning coffee. In the back of your mind you wonder whether you will have enough money to fund the extra costs you know are coming.

You have been paying off mortgages all of your life as well as spending 20 years supporting a family. Retirees know medical costs rise exponentially as they age. Private health doesn’t cover total doctor costs. Retirees need a roof over their heads. Downsizing is not an option because of stamp duty, legal and agent fees.

Later, you may need to enter an aged care home. Bonds for these facilities are often more than $1 million. Thank goodness you have your home asset to fund it. Then there are the ongoing aged care fees.

So by all means advocate for increasing the taxation on self-supporting elderly members of society. But to be consistent, question the government handouts that younger people receive in family tax benefits, child care subsidies and other benefits. Elderly people are just as important to society as other age groups.

Riley Brown, Bondi Beach, NSW

Double standard

Clive Hamilton (“We want us to be proud of our country”, 11/2), wants to strut the world stage and tell everyone how good he and his Australia Institute are because they are against further investment in Australian coal mines.

I have just returned from India where, outside of the big cities and townships, many poor and vulnerable Indians are still burning dried cow dung for their cooking and heating. Who are we to tell the world’s poor that they don’t have those same rights that we had, the access to cheap and reliable electricity that will help grow their economies, their industries and like us allow the opportunity to escape poverty.

Peter Fussell, Wishart, Qld

Big business

Troy Bramston provides an alarming analysis of the paradox of the declining relevance of trade union membership for workers, alongside the surging power and influence of union bosses (“Thinning union ranks still pack a punch”, 12.2). Consider this ahead of the next election, along with Bill Shorten’s pledge to “govern like a union leader” if elected to government. During the 2016 election campaign, Malcolm Turnbull ignored the evidence of corruption uncovered by the Heydon royal commission. The pickings from industry super funds and various extortions in the name of safety training are so rich declining union dues are of minor concern.

John Morrissey, Hawthorn, Vic

Sinking ship

At the naval review in Sydney Harbour in 2045, probably before King William V to mark the centenary of the victory over Japan (or, as the sensitive have it, in the Pacific), the Royal Australian Navy will still not be able to assemble the full submarine fleet. The signing of the contract (“Hiding behind US as subs delivery date sails off into the horizon”, 12/2) led the main TV news, no doubt with the French unable to believe any government would be so stupid. Not only are the vessels to be stripped of nuclear technology, the politicians assume they won’t be needed for decades and they think the people aren’t aware that this represents a bigger raid on the defence budget to shore up government seats than even Labor dared.

David Flint, Bondi Beach, NSW