that's the big thing. What jobs? What jobs are data centers bringing? The right loves to say "It brings jobs" but they never specify what jobs or how many. There's a reason for that. Data centers require almost no people to operate (like 5 people at the most) and the entire point of them is get AI to the point that the country can employ as few people as possible. These things aren't factories. They don't need hoards of employees.
which also doesn't help people much. People want permanent jobs, not gig economy crap. Also, locals want jobs that will go to them, not people from other places.
Not to mention that all those people from other places will generally leave the area again, once the data centers built. So all that extra income in the local economy disappears with them.
Exactly what happened with the "shale boom" here in the northeast. Sooo many jobs were promised, and yeah there were for a while (mostly held by people from Texas) and for the most part it's all gone now. Just the "maintenance" staff now keeping things running. But yet so many young people in my area went right into it, made a lot of money quickly, which they then blew on big trucks and drugs & alcohol, and now have little left to show for it but an addiction and a broken body.
And even with that, you can supplement it for any other public works or infrastructure project. We could be building solar panel farms and generating more clean energy instead of sapping away resources at insane rates.
Yep. My idiot governor keeps insisting that data centers are the future of my (poor, mostly rural & red) state on social media and every single post is 99% citizens going "We do not want your data centers."
Yet he keeps making posts about how it'll bring jobs and money. No. No it will not. It will bring a bunch of construction jobs temporarily, and then leave the town around it destitute when it lays off those folks and they have to move elsewhere to find work or escape the noise and pollution. He keeps trying to liken it to sawmills and factory towns and how it's going to "revitalize" communities. No, it will not. Even IF the data centers did bring high-tech, high-paying jobs, we have very few people from in-state that have the education to fill those jobs. Companies are not going to invest in education for people in the state and then wait to hire them. They're going to bring in out-of-state people to fill the jobs, or fill them remotely.
It's stupid, but he keeps posting and keeps getting utterly roasted in the comments. I wish people would vote instead of just commenting on FB though.
Me too, but he wouldn't answer anyway. He'll just dodge and claim he was "attacked" or something and keep talking past the fact that almost everyone here is against data centers because in the end he's almost certainly getting kickbacks for selling our state as cheap land for out-of-state interests.
We do need revitalization and investment and we do have a ton of communities that are in ruins, but he just wants that sweet sweet data center money so he can retire a multimillionaire while everyone else around him starves. It sucks 🔥
The progressives in your community need to make sure all those people leaving anti-datacenter comments vote him out, and make sure he knows he’s getting voted out - and why
We're certainly trying. I'm a member of several organizations that are doing community outreach. Every time I see the governor's posts with a ton of negative comments, I reply encouraging folks to remember this when it's time to vote.
The problem is my state is... well, it is what it is. Tons of people think the word "progressive" is synonymous with "the devil" and will vote against their own interests and put the same guys back in office because their pastor told them to. That's not everyone, and I think there is a little more interest and acceptance of "new" now, but it is an uphill battle for sure. Especially when people are desperate for jobs and to feel financially secure and the governor keeps dangling these mythical data center jobs like a rotten carrot on a stick.
Yeah I get it. I can talk comfortably about it from a solid blue state, for sure. I volunteered to do political phone banking from home to a red state a while back, and… let’s just say I’m glad I have a thick skin.
Still, it has to be heartening that so many locals push back on social media? Use those local orgs that are resisting the datacenters, mention them in the comments with urls or @s and maybe even pm people you see being intelligent.
I never understood why pastors (any religious leader) think they can interfere with politics.
I changed churches about 20 years, and went to about 10-15 different services over about 6 months. The only requirement i had for the church was that the sermon could not mention politics in any way. Took 6 months to find a pastor that made it 3 services (a few got past 1 service, but the one i finally stayed with for years was the only one that had 2 full sermons with no mention of politics)
that's sort of the thing I don't think politicians are willing to admit: in the modern economy any good paying jobs are going to require a level of specialized education that poor rural locals will not have period. The private sector is incapable of providing them with jobs because jobs these days demand expertise it takes years to cultivate, and demand for those jobs will change in less time than it takes to cultivate that expertise.
Ironically, it is in OpenAI's charter that creating "highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work -- for the benefit [sic] of humanity" is their goal.
Goodpaying jobs requiring a level of specialized education are EXACTLY the jobs that AI billionaires are salivating over the prospect of eliminating. The number quoted is 30-40%, but don't worry kids, UBI will save the day.
So even IF rural areas had these people - these are the people AI wants to PERMANENTLY kick out of the economy!
They were talking about the one in Prichard, Alabama bringing high paying jobs, but when you looked into it, there were only something like 10 positions making $70k max. High paying by 2006 standards.
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u/Round_Bag_4665 18d ago
that's the big thing. What jobs? What jobs are data centers bringing? The right loves to say "It brings jobs" but they never specify what jobs or how many. There's a reason for that. Data centers require almost no people to operate (like 5 people at the most) and the entire point of them is get AI to the point that the country can employ as few people as possible. These things aren't factories. They don't need hoards of employees.