Dr. Dirk Ehnts:

I agree with the Senator's broad points.

The question is do we want to have a larger state or a smaller state. It is depends on what our targets or aims are. If we have to create new infrastructure, because we understand we cannot move forward with the infrastructure that we have in place and we must green our infrastructure, for example, it would be a difficult decision for private investors as to whether to invest in that. They would either have profits or not have profits in 20 or 30 years because we are talking about infrastructure that would be built and would last half a century or even a century. Often much uncertainty surrounds that. The private sector normally would not want to invest in those things and it would try to get the public sector into that area to guarantee it profits but that is inefficient. That is just a waste of resources. There is a clear case for some parts of public infrastructure to be run by the public sector. If it is possible to run it with private firms, that would also be okay. I have a sense that we are now living in a post-ideology world where we would say let the private sector and public sector compete and then we will find out what works. If, for example, public trains work better than private trains, then so be it. As almost all of us have public universities, for example, there are some areas where there is strong consensus that it is okay to have the public sector in there but I would also say the public sector has to find a new role. It has to be leading, not just creating a level playing field. It needs to be more dynamic and creative. We need to rethink the role of the state in our societies and the role government. In recent decades the government was more or less trying to find rules for the market to work within those rules. However, as the Senator said, with real estate, for example, the results are pretty bad. Markets are there to maximise profits. In markets those people who have euro can get what they want but those who do not have euro do not get what they want. If the Senator recognises, for example, that real restate that is built in this country is built for those people who have a lot of money, then there is a need for the Government to be back in that market. I would argue it is even clear now to people in Germany that this must be the case. It is not about building some type of social housing, now there is a need to build for 99% of the population. We have to rebuild our cities with new infrastructure and that must happen not at a centralised government level but, hopefully, at a decentralised level where citizens can participate and decide what kind of infrastructure they would like to choose. It would be great if the rules could be changed in a way that we would have more decentralised decisions about public infrastructure. That would be a step forward.