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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   2087 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 23, 2026

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To what extent is anti-data center pushing big tech into further GOP alignment?

BTW why so much hate for data centers specifically? Is it just "those folks make tons of money and don't give any to us, we must hate them" or is there more to it? I mean yes, they consume electricity/water/space/whatever, so do many industrial sites and nobody (excepting hippie Gaia lovers which are entirely different crowd) cares. Is it just a new fashionable thing to hate or is there anything deeper here? As big industry projects go, they seem to be far from the worst - they don't smell, barely pollute, don't look egregiously bad (in fact, if we ever manage to get away from endless brutalism, they can look as good as one wants) and can be, as I understand, located on the shittiest terrain ever without a problem. Why are they the devil exactly?

BTW why so much hate for data centers specifically?

This new construction is qualitatively different from previous data centers that leaned more toward CPU workloads or storage. Additionally, many of the reasons that cause locals to dislike them have as much to do with the slapdash nature of the construction as the data center itself.

The gas turbines sound like a Geneva convention violation. The construction equipment fucks up the roads going into and out of the construction sites. The owners get sweetheart tax deals that negate the property tax arguments. The ongoing "jobs" they create are usually something like eight security guards working part time for $18/hour with no benefits.

If you live in San Francisco or Chicago, that all probably sounds great. If you live a couple of miles away, it sucks.

The ongoing "jobs" they create are usually something like eight security guards working part time for $18/hour with no benefits.

Ohio's about the lowest cost-of-living state that has a serious data center presence. It's hard to get great numbers given "data center guard" includes everything from armed and security-cleared to glorified stor-all clerk, but at least from a quick check all the big name AI ones look to be starting at 30/hour and better benefits than I've got now.

There's just not many jobs there.

Most of the ones around me are neocloud providers, and they contract out the security.

I wonder if that's part of the disconnect in the conversation here - different companies could well be handling things very differently.

Could be, and I don't have the tooling to check Ohio numbers on those. Would be stupid to pay them less than a McDonald's and sit them in front of million-dollar servers, but wouldn't be the first stupid thing.

I'm reminded of a joke about college football refs and fixing games: "If you want us to believe that they're not fixing the games, pay them enough money that it's not plausible!"

Thé going rate for general maintenance in a data center is six figures.

I'm not going to argue the numbers because you're correct, but I have also seen specialty teams flown in from Texas to handle that maintenance. The actual number of locals doing maintenance post construction is pretty low. The number of people getting their foot in the door to even get the training is even lower.

There's a broad attempt by the pro data center contingent to act like these things are comparable to an old tool and die, or rolled steel mill. They're not even close.

I'm not even against data centers per-se. I'm against the fact that the people building them are functionally pillaging rural communities and doing a half-assed job of it at the same time. They're cramming them in tents, for Christ's sake. I might even be willing to tolerate that, if our local politicians weren't so venal and craven that we can't even extract tax revenues from them.

but I have also seen specialty teams flown in from Texas to handle that maintenance.

I think it's an open question whether or not the human capital to build and maintain advanced data centers exists in these rural areas. I have similar questions about the high-skilled immigration debate writ large. One can raise wages, but if the price elasticity of supply of talented workers isn't high enough, then there will still be a shortage

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