Berlin is no longer cheap, at least compared to Berlin of five or ten years ago. The housing surplus has turned into a housing shortage.

It’s still not quite SF or NYC or London prices, but it is much more in line with the rest of Germany now.

Sure, Berlin used to be crazy cheap, now it's just cheap. Rents are increasing, but that's happening everywhere. For large cities, Berlin is still the least expensive (compared to Western Germany, Eastern Germany is a different thing), by far. If you're looking at Hamburg, or worse, Munich, be prepared to pay two or three times the rent.

It's been my impression from the two or three times a year that I'm in Berlin for a few days that it just works very differently, there's a trade-off between cost of living vs convenience that people accept when they move to Berlin. It's dirtier, a bus or train may just break down, people are generally a bit more rowdy, and you don't expect much from the administration, but then again: you pay a lot less, so it's worth it, like a hostel compared to a hotel.

Absolutely.

https://www.statista.com/chart/15738/the-contribution-of-sel...

https://qz.com/753244/berlin-is-the-only-capital-city-in-eur...

Berlin is quite a unique capital in that it's relatively poor and contributes relatively little to the national economy. Apart from its size warranting certain infrastructure with sufficient capacity, it'd be surprising if it had much better infrastructure than it does. Its economy doesn't easily allow it.

I disagree with this pretty firmly, I'm afraid :-)

Berlin can be cheap relative to other capitals (though this is getting less true) but the extent to which that's the case depends on your personal choices.

Public infrastructure is another matter because it serves everyone and everyone contributes - there needs to be a minimum bar. And yes, if I pay the same taxes as everyone else, I want a comparable level of service and convenience in my infrastructure to what people in the other cities get.

I meant "cheap" compared to other German cities. No matter what your personal preference is, you'll pay significantly less in Berlin than you would in Hamburg, Munich, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt etc, regarding rent, but also things like eating out at a restaurant.

The taxes aren't the same as well - local infrastructure isn't a federal issue, so federal income tax doesn't pay for that. Berlin's tax factor for companies (a major part of local taxes) is 410%, compared to Hamburg's 470%, Munich's 490% or Cologne's 475%. Berliners have decided to go with lower taxes to attract companies away from other cities, so Berlin has less money to spend on public infrastructure, even though Berlin gets a lot of subsidies from other states (2-3bn/year).

That's very interesting, thanks, I didn't realise that was the case with the taxes. I assumed that some percentage of each person's personal income tax would end up being spent on infrastructure - I actually find it hard to believe it's not, i.e. that it all comes from tax on businesses, but if what you say is the case that does make it feel a little less unfair.