Retirees Want To Flee Decaying Moral Climate

(From Bartel’s column, December 22, 1996:) Wrong number: Last week’s column contained an incorrect number for the Costa Rica Residents Association. The correct number is (011)(506) 221-2053.

Lower living costs aren’t an overriding reason why most people who retire abroad choose another country in which to live. Neither is a spirit of adventure and romance. Instead, the deciding factors are:

Social deterioration in the United States.

Moral laxity.

Taxes.

Pollution.

How do I know?

First off, retirement consultant Jane Parker says so. The founder and president of Lifestyle Explorations, a consulting and relocation firm that specializes in overseas retirement, took a poll of her clientele.

Secondly, the above is pretty much what I found in talking with readers of this column who responded to earlier installments on retiring abroad.

Especially heavy was the response to a column on Costa Rica that was published during the darkest days of the region’s recent devastating ice storm. After that, it seems like about half the population wants to retire and go to Costa Rica.

Take Steve Kosnac in Post Falls.

Says the retired 71-year-old oil industry engineer and world traveler, “Socially, this country it going to hell.

“Moral standards are shot. Kids and adults don’t respect each other anymore. We’re losing a lot of our individual liberties. It’s scary.

“Today in America, money is all that counts. We’re creating a true caste system of haves and don’t haves.”

Kosnac traveled and lived abroad most of his working life, and he takes special heed of young folks. “The foreign kids I’ve mingled with who travel the globe fear for their safety the most in the United States.

“Everywhere I went, I lived with the working people. They make the culture. Not the rich. If you want to live in a fancy hotel - go to Atlantic City and stay there. You’ll never learn anything, except how to check in and check out.”

Anyway, Kosnac said Costa Rica is looking better and better. “I want to live in a land where I can walk through a forest, or comb a beach, or stroll down the street in safety, and see people smiling even though they don’t have a lot.”

Bernie Kite of Spokane wrote that “a tropical climate, a stable government, a cost of living within our means, good health care, and a low level of poverty” make Costa Rica “seem like a dream come true.

“After Spokane’s exciting adventure with the ice storm,” she continued, “I suspect you will be receiving many requests for information about other warm climate retirement areas.”

Yes indeed, and not just from soon-to-be retirees. Ken Hughey, 42, works for a Spokane-area pharmaceutical manufacturer, Borin-Halbich. “I’m too young to retire in Costa Rica,” he says, “but I’m thinking of going there and starting a business. This country is going to hell in a handbasket.

“It’s important to me to live in a country with family values. The stability of the family is primary with me.”

This next item is for dozens of readers who phoned or wrote wanting more information on Costa Rica. The best source I know of is a nonprofit organization in the capital city of San Jose that represents the foreign retirement community. “We are the place to get information on retirement,” says Grace Woodman, president of the Association of Residents of Costa Rica. “People can telephone or write to us. We have an information packet that we send out.

“Our specialty is working with people who want to move to Costa Rica,” says the native Midwesterner who migrated to Costa Rica 28 years ago and is now “sort of” retired. “We have all the information on the legal aspects of the move, and the documents required. We can assist newcomers in getting here and getting settled, and help them adapt to their new country as they go along.”

Phone: (001) (506) 221-2053 or (001) (506) 233-8068. Fax: (001) (506) 222-7862. Or write: Association of Residents of Costa Rica; P.O. Box 025292 No. SB0019; Miami, Fla. 33102-5292.

Another excellent source is The Tico Times, Costa Rica’s English-language weekly newspaper. The U.S. subscription address is: Dept. 717, P.O. Box 025216, Miami, Fla. 33102-5216.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes on retirement issues each Sunday. He can be reached with ideas for future columns at 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review