[hakfoo]

I always fancied the idea of 'dedollarizing' retirement.

When you turn 65/70/whatever, your pension/IRA/401(k) isn't paid out as a monthly cheque, but instead as a lifetime lease to an apartment in a retirement complex with subsidized services, and a relatively tiny cash stipend.

The quality of life remains comparable, except we've removed the ceremony of passing most of the money through the hands of the pensioners on the way to landlords, medical providers, etc. But because the goods and services can be preplanned and bulk-contracted and managed long-term, the operation can get get more value out of $1000 than an individual buyer would get out of $1400. This reduces the pressure for high returns.

This also eliminates the risk of outliving your money. With a prepaid obligation to be fed/sheltered/taken care of, the risk is transferred back to the pension scheme, or society as a whole through a state-insurance-backstop fund, which is probably better resourced and capable of swallowing the risk than your typical individual 85-year-old in failing health.

[amluto]

And then PE can buy up those subsidized housing systems and make them suck?

I’m sort of kidding about the PE here us particular. But institutions that aren’t run by people who personally care about services tend to be really bad at maintaining things like food quality or ventilation or furniture or any of the hard-to-measure attributes that make for a nice housing situation.

[toomuchtodo]

Medicare, social security, and a senior housing unit?