This phrase was really used to introduce a government plan: citizens should contribute to repair and extension of the German road system.
The K-Landnews TheEditor roared: The final solution to infrastructure problems, gotta hand it to them.
While TheEditor calms down, let's see what the plan is. We would prefer to say "was", but it keeps popping up and, if we know the German political process, it will make one or tow more rounds in the media and then appear as a fully developed bill in the Berlin parliament.
The plan is obviously very much needed, since there can be no doubt that German citizens have not contributed to the venerable road system!
If they had, why would the government feel the need to ask for a contribution?
So we went on a research binge, which means five minutes of web searches, to find out who pays for the venerable German road system.
Freakish as it may sound, we did not find citizens as road builders. The actors are the local communities (villages, towns, cities), the counties, the states, and the German federal government.
Look ma, no citizens!
The grand plan of the grand coalition aims to fix this problem by privatizing road infrastructure and financing it through tolls and fees. The grand plan states that this will bring much needed funds to infrastructure development and represent a contribution by citizens, who pay for usage.
The grand plan clearly says that incentives must be created to attract investors, and specifies that the incentives should come in the form of guaranteed returns on investment at the tune of five to seven percent interest or profit.
Everybody wins: institutional investors, such as life insurers who are facing minimal returns on capital in a zero interest economy, the country would get swanky new roads for free, the citizens would be able to go anywhere fast on these asphalt dreamscapes.
Oh, and the current government employees who do road work and planning would have a grand time. Some would supervise the private money machine, others would do, well, nothing because they cannot be fired as "Beamte" (that special brand of German government employees the world doesn't know much about).
So, we were happy with the grand plan until we saw what consumer organizations say.
They are sounding the alarms. Which makes lots of noise in this sedate country and won't help, but here it is.
The towns, counties, states, the feds, they all get their money from taxes, which surprisingly are paid by the citizens.
In a normal world, that could be called a contribution, right? And if the government can borrow money for new roads and pay 0.1% interest, why would that be bad? Like French freeways that generate easy revenue, or like Austrian mountain tunnels - sans the tunnels for better profit.
Look, say the experts, if we can make the citizens contribute five to seven percent, wouldn't they feel more valued as people with a stake in their roads?
More like a stake through their hearts, rumbled TheEditor.
As much as we would love to go into more detail about contributing to society, we need to make some real money (you people are not clicking enough ads, your fault) because we will have a street payment coming up.
Oh, you did not know that towns and cities - even without the new grand plan - make property owners on streets and roads pay a good chunk of money for renovating a street?
Well, neither did we.
[Update 6/4/2016] A report in Zeitonline today tells readers that a deal is planned before the summer recess. Last year, the minimum guaranteed return on investment floated by the commission was in the range of 5 to 7%. The government can still borrow money at 0%, and the European Central Bank has instituted negative interest rates for its account holders.
A couple of spoil sport readers suggested to give the freeways to a holding company whose profits would be used to support the crumbling public pension system of the country.
No, that might be reasonable, so it won't happen. A public private partnership transferring a huge piece of German
infrastructure shows neo-liberalism is not going away any time soon.
The measure requires a change to the German constitution, which needs a two thirds super majority. National elections in 2017 may see the current "grand coalition" government lose that super majority, hence a sense of renewed urgency.
[Update 11/12/2016] According to the next issue of Der Spiegel, privatization of the German autobahn network is imminent as soon as the country's constitution is changed to transfer the freeway infrastructure to the federal authorities. Currently, responsibility for freeways is shared between the federal government and the states.
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