The scale of the problem is awesome. The German healthcare system costs employees and workers more than 14% of wages.
The pension system takes 19.5% of pay. Add to that an inflexible labour market and some of the highest non-wage labour costs in the world, and it is a recipe for economic stagnation and unemployment.
It is less than two months since Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Red-Green coalition scraped home to a second term, despite unemployment of more than four million.
But his popularity has slipped as one set of statistics after another has revealed an economy in crisis.
Many Germans believe the government did not reveal the full extent of the country's economic woes in the run-up to the election, and feel betrayed as a result.
News of a $30bn hole in planned tax revenues was just the latest shock.
