Maut (The Road Tax) Episode

I was kinda waiting for this…..the new government (the righty crowd)….had the transportation chief come out last week....and announce they are renewing a review of the introduction of road tolls in German autobahns. About twelve hours later...he came out and said it was a mis-statement and backtracked.

This is one of those ideas that revenue guys have been hyping on for a decade now. They know the invention of new methods of collecting taxes has to be extended....and this is the best “hidden” method they know of. The majority of Germans though....are against it.

About ten years ago…..the new government came in (the lefty crowd)….and decided that folks in trucks ought to pay a road toll and then determined that a technology concept of “black boxes” and satellites would be the answer. Naturally, this answer left the door open for car inclusion later.

So the boys jumped in….got around six major companies involved and figured in eighteen months they could crank up this massive program across the whole nation. The simple deal? You had a card that you “charged” up at some gas station ATM-like machine. You put the card into a “black box” within the truck….that had antenna. As the truck passed under a steel structure on the autobahn….it reads the account and then deducts the money from the account.

How far apart are these structures? It could be five miles….it could twenty miles. Each one is a different charge. You could enter one end of a town like Frankfurt….travel the entire distance on the autobahn to the other end…and never cross a single one of these readers. In my case, if I take the long route on the autobahn….I will pass one reader before I get to the base. The likely charge? Unknown at this point, but I’d guess on 50 cents….so it’d likely run a buck a day to drive quickly to work.

This charge….the “maut”….is an amusing subject. If you ask Germans who pays the charge…they tell you the trucker. Then you ask if the trucker assumes the entire burden…or passes it along to the consumer buying the item off the truck? Then they start to realize that they quietly pass this charge or tax themselves.

The selling point is that other nations that transit Germany….pay their fair share….and that’s all foreign income unrelated to Germany.

There are folks who oppose this entire idea….like the German Federation of Taxpayers….who referred to this road toll idea as "a scam."

The current selling point on this deal is that foreign cars transit the country….on vacation or business….and they could improve the current tax revenue bucket by 20 percent.
Having been in Germany for fifteen years….I can tell you a simple fact….folks will work hard to avoid paying this tax. If they find that it costs $40 a month to use the autobahn to drive to work….they will find the county or city roads to avoid the scam….and crowd up the current access roads by two hundred percent. The advantage of using the fee? Out the back door rather quickly.

Would I pay the $1 a day? I laughed as I considered this idea. I would burn up an extra twenty minutes a day if I avoid the autobahn, and probably burn an extra three gallons of gas per week….but you have to analyze this problem carefully. I work with people who would have to transit five of these readers….and maybe pay $40 a week….which would be a silly expense.

Would the current gas tax be deleted? No….the odds are zero on that. The government guy’s won’t even discuss that idea. So basically….an entire new tax would be levied across German society….emptying out another $500 a year or more….on the common guy. The bulk of folks won’t be getting a pay raise…just like last year….so they are all digging in and tossing more money to the government.

So, everyone is hoping the mis-statement made....was just that...and that these idiots won't bring this up again. My guess? Give it six months....and it'll be brought up again....just when they need more taxes.

Geothermal Story

So this is what happened. Some folks were digging a geothermal heat source in Wiesbaden (downtown). Basically, you are digging at a significant dept....and hoping to find that pocket of warm springs. The boys were down to 300 feet or so....when it erupted.

So water started spewing out of the ground at the drilling site. The boys were kinda surprised. They figured it'd just be water....not under any pressure.

This started on Thursday. It spewed all night, then through most of Friday. We've likely gone from the tens of thousands of gallons scenario to the hundreds of thousand of gallons scenario by this point.

The neat thing here...is that it's right by the Finance Ministry and some fancy hotel downtown. So both have some minor flood issues.

Based on some reports....they were apparently able on Saturday to plug this to some degree but folks still aren't one hundred percent on this plug business. It could be....that it's simply contained and the water is flowing somewhere else right now. The closeness of the hotel and Ministry buildings....makes you wonder if ground strength is now being disrupted and maybe a pit might be opening up sooner or later to swallow up things.

Naturally, you can envision this scenario. Here's Schmidt arriving at his lowly finazamt office building on Monday over at the Finance Ministry. Schmidt is amongst the lowest of the low on the management pole.....number 44 out of 52 leaders in the building. Schmidt passes a stairway, and observes this crack in the wall. He stands there....eyeballing this for a full minute. He turns around and walks out....goes home....and calls in sick (saying he has the Swine Flu).

Hours pass at the ministry building....and then.....the whole thing caves into a 300 foot pit. Everyone in the building is wiped out. The next day.....Schmidt shows up at the emergency finance headquarters to find that he's moved up 43 places and is now judged to be the next chief of the Finance Ministry....by mere survival. All due....to a crack in the wall.

Stranger things have happened....you know.

ZDFneo

There's a legendary fact about state-run TV in Germany....nobody under the age of 30 really watches it. The state TV guys may argue about this and get all pumped up over sports on their channel which might attract guys....but beyond that....it's a big zero.

So the boys woke up...in the new digital era....and created another channel (yet another expense on the TV audience via taxes).....and created ZDFneo.....a channel for the "hip" generation of Germany.

So, the ZDFneo management team went out to find really hot shows that German youth would watch....to get them addicted and willing to help continue on this TV tax game.

The boys bought the rights to broadcast 30 Rock.

Last week....with its first broadcast....they got 5,000 or less folks in Germany to watch. It was mostly a joke....and they really needed more folks to make this pay off. Well...this week....they got up to 30,000 viewers....out of 80 million folks. It would be a safe bet to say this was awful marginal and if they can't get past 250,000 viewers....they might as well give up on this idea of "hot" shows to draw new viewers.

The sad thing....is that I have to pay for this stupidity with my TV tax.

Twenty Lousy Years

On 9 November...twenty years ago...the wall came down.

This is a big topic right now...the twenty years have passed and there are various parties, celebrations and concerts (U2 in Berlin) scheduled as part of this moment.

The wall has become a curious and forgotten topic. East and West Germany united today....for better or worse.

The vast majority of folks in West Germany today...would say this was not the glory that they anticipated...and the money spent so far...appears to be going into a bottomless pit.

The Easties? Well...they will quietly tell you over a beer...that life was better in the East...than it is today.

I kinda sit there and laugh. Neither group really is happy over the mess. The taxes went up. A vast war over ownership of property in Eastern Germany erupted...with old owners from previous to the war, and those who escaped in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s...fighting to recover what they felt they owned.

Then the Stassi secret police files continue to amaze folks. Every month or so...so noted person is found to be part of the Stassi effort. Various journalists, sports folks, and even TV stars....are all finding this Stassi label to be negative in some fashion.

I spent a weekend over past the "line" about four years ago. It was an odd feeling...crossing what was a divided country, and then noting a tremendous difference in economic standing. Structures aren't painted...brand new houses exist at one end of town...while the town itself is dark and without much life.

This twenty year period has passed and a entire generation has forgotten the division. My son knows little to nothing over the period. He has simply accepted the country as whole. Teachers don't go into this topic much...spending more time on Rome or German history before 1914.

I'm guessing in another twenty years...this entire event will be forgotten. The money tossed toward East Germany over the past two decades...will simply continue on...and maybe in four or five decades...it might actually start to make a difference. Meanwhile, everyone will grumble about the past twenty lousy years...and sip a beer long and slow while uttering this.

H1-N1 Continued

The chief of the German office for vaccinations (STIKO)...apparently came up and has told German doctors to get themselves immunized against the H1-N1 or Swine Flu virus.

This is part of the current debate going on because a number of doctors aren't taking the same view as the government. As for how legit this order might be....I'd be saying it probably is lacking in authority. There's virtually no one in Germany that can absolutely ordered to take the shot except the German military. The cops and firemen might have some kind of standing order...but so far it's not being advertised.

It's part of this debate being carried on. All of the political figures are pushing for the shot. Journalists are mostly reporting facts and leaving it to the public to decide. If I asked around my village....probably less than half are going to take the shot currently.

Just a Bust

If you ever make a trip to Berlin....there is this museum there....for Egyptian stuff, that you ought to spend a half day viewing.

The place? The Neues Museum.

This week, it got back on the map after alot of renovation and a reopening. The thing about this museum....is that they have a bust of Queen Nefertiti...which excites all the Egyptian-history wannabe experts.

This bust...is not just a $50 job...it's an original, and there in...lies a problem.

The Germans won't really get into a big discussion on this...but a German dude who was digging in Egypt....came up with the bust. The story is....he put a good bit of mud on it...walked it through the Egyptian customs folks there in the late 1800s....and they approved the exit of some old bust in bad shape. Naturally, modern Egyptian history buffs...will laugh over this...and admire it in a mega-million showroom.

The Egyptians? They have put up a pretty good argument over the return of the bust. They want the 3,500-year old bust back. They think the Germans are acting in an illegal fashion...and just ought to correct themselves.

It's a soap opera of sorts. The two groups argue back and forth. The Germans hate ethical debates on this because they lose. The Egyptians hate history lessons because they basically let hundreds of tons of stuff leave the country before they got tough in the past forty years.

Anyway.....if you got three hours to waste in Berlin....stop by the Museum. Just outside, there are five or six coffee & cake joints within five minutes walking and sip some fine German coffee afterward.

Oh, and my impression of the bust? Some dude spent an awful lot of time doing some fine work on this. It is pretty neat.

The Swine Flu Shot

For a week now....folks in Germany have been discussing this two-shot deal for swine flu. Basically, the govenrnment has one shot reserved for government workers and one shot reserved for everyone else.

Now, the government has tried to settle this...saying the "big" shot for government folks has a slightly different formula but then folks ask why, and the scientists have kinda avoided answering this....mostly I think....because they really can't say much. One company made formula A and one company made formula B.

The "A" formula? Reserved for for soldiers, police officers, and essential workers. "B" goes for the rest of the folks.

Then you have a group of experts who claim that neither shot offers much protection.

So a bunch of Germans are standing there...shaking their heads, sipping beer....and wondering if it even matters.

Just a Palace

Once upon a time...in the heart of Germany...Berlin...there stood the Stadtschloss...basically a castle of sorts. It wasn't exactly grand or a four-star establishment. It wouldn't measure up to the Bavarian scale of castles. It was a nice castle...at least for Berlin.

So the war came, and the thing was heavily damaged. After the war....sitting in the DDR section of Berlin and under Soviet control...it was eventually decided not to fix the castle...but to tear it down and build up the Palace of the Republic...some structure for East German political dudes to meet, rubber-stamp policy and gossip.

Ever since Berlin became a hub of activity again...folks kept talking about the old castle. So recently, the political players and the powers of Berlin finally got into the castle-building frame of mind. The Palace of the Republic has been torn down...and the boys want to erect a $750-odd million palace or castle (depending on your definition of things).

This site is over at Museum Island...a center point in Berlin and not a bad location. The old palace that stood there...was build in 1871...and barely lasted 75 years.

The selling point for this expensive structure...to make everyone happy...is that it will look like a palace but actually house most of the works of art and science that other city museums now hold. So it's not a real palace or castle....like you'd think.

The curious thing is that a number of folks have stood up and asked about the cost and really don't want to waste their tax revenue on such a structure. It's not like the government really needs a palace...you know.

Some folks even say it'll go at least fifty percent over budget...maybe even one hundred percent. So a billion might actually be spent on this in the end.

Others say that it's a tourist magnet from day one on. They think it'll draw fantastic crowds and pump up the economy....like that silly little castle down in Bavaria does today.

The amusing thing here...is that you would have thought that a German designer would have been hired for this...but instead, it's an Italian. This is probably another reason why some folks question this whole thing.

Merkel and the new government could cancel this project or delay it. The curious thing is that local city council is mostly SPD and they seem to be very much in the support part of this game. They actually think it's a positive thing and provides jobs for the locals. The project? It would start next October...and be done in four years...if it does start on time.

My guess is that it'll get built...it'll run to well over a billion...and be a huge magnet for the public. And in fifty years...probably need a major renovation effort to fix up problems.