Good point. Little has changed in this respect.

... and too many Germans preferred to be duped to facing the music. It was more comfortable in the short run.

Oh, and to be even-handed: ofc mother's pensions (CSU) as well as pension with 63 (SPD) are *New* consumptive expenditures when the opposite is required.

So please spare me the whining about small fry which may or may not have positive ROI. Thank you.

Add the plethora of subsidies for this, that and its opposite and the byzantine administration that seems preoccupied mainly with administering itself and making it harder for businesses to make money and you have plenty of big-ticket savings.

(2) Pensions are the biggest single social expenditure. Twice the SPD stopped demographic adjustment of the pension level. And they are currently at it again. Aggregated this alone could cost up to €500B to 2050.

It would be more honest to address the major and obvious factors:

(1) due to the composition of current migration, each migrant on average costs US €500k over his lifetime (Raffelhüschen). A good Aussie-style migration policy reduces consumption.

Cute. Complaining about underinvestment in physical infrastructure but unwilling to acknowledge that consumptive spending is excessive while govt spending reaches 50% BIP. This attitude, ideology and NIMBYism is at the heart of the problem. Congratulations.

If you cannot differentiate between investment and consumption this discussion is pointless. Sad.

Is that so? I'd argue that after 2003 AM lost all desire to reign in consumptive spending.

That AM & Schäuble pushed back against even more excessive spending (by others) is no valid argument to the contrary.

PS: Let's not waste time by derailing (GB, F, ...)

Some in the party are, I believe. I'd count Linnemann & Merz among them.

But the org as a whole is addicted to spending (like any party in power, really) & power (€ buys votes).

So overall a fair point. And another reaaon why the Greens should habe pushed harder!

Do you think the CDU would have minded this? I think this may actually have helped the CDU against CSU & SPD spending splurge demands!