Germans generally say things like "politcians prefer to spend on building new things, not maintaining" and so on. In my impression, the deeper reason is that th

Germans generally say things like "politcians prefer to spend on building new things, not maintaining" and so on. In my impression, the deeper reason is that the voters' priorities have changed, and the politicians have sensed that and act accordingly. German voters now aren't really eager to spend much money on things like that Ringbahnbrücke. Some people think that obviously should be put in order, and improved so it'll carry today's heavier cars too, but they're not a majority. Only a third of the households in the state that would pay for that bridge have a car, so for a majority of voters, that's tax money being spent so a minority can drive and not pay. When the Ringbahnbrücke was built, many voters drove cars or expected to drive in the future and liked the idea of a nice Autobahn. Not any more, things have changed. Similarly for the schools: I have children (I live in Germany, but am not German) and it seems to me that only a minority of Germans regard money spent on schools as money spent on themselves. There are majorities or near-majorities that regard pensions as money spent on themselves, ditto health care, ditto police, but schools? I don't see that. So politicians campaign on raising pensions and so on, what else could they do if their analysis matches mine.