Why don't construction prices go down?

Nothing to find amusing about that. Ultimately, it is currently the only active opposition party and apparently the only way for many to express themselves against the government. You don't have to support that, but recognizing the quackery yourself does not convince others.

I understand that people are dissatisfied. But what do they expect from them? They have no solutions either, just loud shouting and opposition. But they are completely empty in terms of content, right? I am amazed that so many people don't see through that.

The real divide runs between those who have to work regularly for their income and exchange their lifetime or creativity for money and those who do not have to because their money multiplies on its own through long-term investments in whatever.

But the divide is not a sharp line, rather a transition. Even if I can only cover 20% of my income from my assets, that gives me a lot of freedom. A 4-day workweek or a company that pays less but has less commuting, less stress, etc. As for the heating issue... I believe the core problem is not the question of the heat pump, but that many people still consider the energy renovation of their 1970s houses optional and shift the costs to the heat pump now, whereas they would not do that with a gas heating system. But if we exclude the building envelope, we can save ourselves the whole theater about climate protection. And of course, sales of heat pumps are now collapsing. If someone promises me a subsidy soon, I won’t install one now without a subsidy, even if I originally planned to.

I have nothing against the heating law. But there is a not insignificant part of the population that is very critical of it. Because it is clear that this will cost a lot of money and a 50% subsidy on €40,000 is still a lot of money. And when gas is made more expensive in addition (emissions trading) to motivate people to switch and the government simply isn’t honest in its communication but sugarcoats everything, these people rightfully feel cheated. I regularly hear what the conversion to heat pumps costs (which is not feasible in every house) and what people think of the obligation to do so. I live in SH, where already a 15% share of renewable energies in heating replacement is mandatory and usually this makes it more expensive. Obviously, no one enjoys that unless they are fully ideologically behind it.

And the fact that the willingness is not voluntary is very clear from the now again declining sales figures for heat pumps. Even here in SH, they are stuck in dealers' warehouses and no one wants them. The same is happening with electric cars with reduced subsidies; they also don’t sell so easily anymore.

I myself am deeply involved in all the municipal matters with municipal heat planning and strengthening the power grids and can roughly see the amount of work and costs coming to municipalities and ultimately the population. Full cost accounting for future heat supply results in, regardless of scenario, about 20 ct / kWh, no matter the technology.

There is nothing amusing about that. Ultimately, it is currently the only active opposition party and seemingly the only option for many to express themselves against the government. No need to support it, but recognizing the quackery oneself doesn’t convince the others.

Compared to the price surcharges caused by the Russian war of aggression, the CO2 tax is a joke. That is currently the reason for the high prices and nothing else. The last four years have clearly shown the following:

- worldwide crises can occur at any time
- triggers for these crises can be, besides pandemics and wars, the bursting of bubbles (see financial crisis 2008)
- these different crises can seamlessly transition into each other and last for years

Against this background, it is nonsense for a raw material-poor country to continue to rely on energy carriers from abroad such as uranium, crude oil, or natural gas and at the same time demonize renewable energies. I can operate an air heat pump with my own photovoltaic system. I cannot operate an oil heating system with my own oil because I have no source in the garden.

The barrel of crude oil cost $1.20 in 1970. In 2010, the price was $107.46, currently it’s about $85, with a yearly high of $133. So the price has increased by a factor of 70 over 53 years. But let’s take a shorter example:

In 1998, the price was $12.98. In 25 years, the price has increased sevenfold. I already hear the people who recently installed an oil heating system screaming in 25 years:

“The barrel of oil now costs $600 and I pay €10 for 1 liter of heating oil. That’s outrageous!!1!!One!!! I want an immediate heating oil price cap!!!”

The AfD currently offers no solutions for the problems of the present. It has even fewer ideas for the problems of the future. As an opposition party, it is currently the loudest one that manages to gather the other loudmouths around it. These people usually do not notice that they would have disadvantages if the AfD’s election program were implemented because they don’t like to read and are rather simple-minded.

I myself am miles away from ever voting for the AfD, but I understand why they have such successful poll numbers... especially in rural areas. I recently looked out of interest at how much I could still work if, thanks to rising fuel prices, we could no longer afford two cars at some point and came to the conclusion that realistically not more than 25 hours per week would be possible (the children still have to be taken to kindergarten, which is not available here in the village), simply because public transportation is so limited. When I then consider the loss of income, the car might actually be cheaper again... depending on the exact fuel costs... currently it would definitely be significantly cheaper, even if I do not charge for tickets. But what happens if we really can't afford the car anymore, then we probably couldn't afford to reduce working hours either and certainly could not put anything aside for converting to a heat pump. I hope that it will not hit us that hard personally in the end, and we wanted to convert to a heat pump anyway as soon as we can afford it... but photovoltaics will no longer be financially feasible. And compared to the local average, we are not even doing badly here, so I fear that many will actually not know how to cope in just a few (!) years if public transportation is not significantly (!!) expanded in rural areas as well. When you look into such a future and feel completely helpless and still have to hear that everything must become more expensive so that people finally feel enough pressure to switch to electric cars and heat pumps... yes... then one can get angry sometimes and unfortunately many then believe the simple slogans, even though the party behind them would probably only make everything worse.

Regarding what describes, one must also consider that we probably belong mostly to a fairly privileged group in a forum like this. Just thinking about building a house alone probably means you don’t walk through the discount store adding up the items in your head. But in reality, there are more and more families for whom, because of inflation and the overall situation, it is becoming increasingly tight to the point that grocery shopping is already a problem. I can understand that these people currently do not feel addressed. However, as of today, I can assign little blame to the government. None of them invented the pandemic, none of them started the war. They are all currently sailing on extremely rough seas and trying to make the best of it. I have to say, I’m less angry at them; I rather feel a bit sorry for them.

I myself am miles away from ever voting for the AfD, but I understand why they have such successful poll numbers... especially in rural areas.
I recently checked out of curiosity how much I could still work if, due to rising fuel prices, we could no longer afford two cars someday and came to the conclusion that realistically no more than 25 hours per week would be possible (the children still have to be taken to the kindergarten and there isn’t one here in town), simply because there is so little public transportation available. When I then consider the loss of income, the car might actually be cheaper again... depending on the exact fuel costs... currently it would definitely be significantly cheaper, even if I don’t charge anything for tickets.
But what happens if we really could no longer afford the car, then we probably couldn’t afford to reduce working hours either, and certainly couldn’t put anything aside for converting to a heat pump.

And here I ask myself why you did not consider such points when choosing the place to live, but only now. I assume that the lack of infrastructure was already known when the property was built/bought. Probably the trend towards more expensive fuel was known as well. Two risks known in advance. But you consciously accepted the risks back then because other factors were more important. Maybe the price of the property or something else.

The same applies to the heating law: it is to be expected that gas/oil will become more expensive. However, a part of the population does not care and still wants to stick to this energy source, only to then be able to say after the expected price increases:

"I can no longer afford heating with my pension/income."