That’s what millions are asking after reading a NYT piece on the need for additional spending to maintain and improve Germany’s infrastructure. The piece referred to a report from a government commission that put the additional spending needed at 7.2 billion euros a year, or $9.7 billion.

Since most readers probably do not have a very good idea of the size of Germany’s economy, they may not have a sense of how big a burden this poses. In 2014 Germany’s economy is projected to be a bit larger than 2.5 trillion euros. This means that this spending would be a bit less than 0.3 percent of GDP. It would roughly equivalent to spending $45 billion a year in the United States or less than 9 percent of the defense budget.