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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.
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
Sure, but then you can't pretend "why do these mouth-breathers not want data centres beside their hovels, are they too dumb to see the economic benefit it will bring to their run-down nowheresville backwater?" because there is no economic benefit. The tax breaks sweetheart deals mean the companies pay less than they promised, the jobs are going to outsiders, and if there is bad outcome such as electricity price rises, fucking up local water supplies, etc. then the locals pay it while the benefits go to the shareholders far away.
So if there's no economic benefit, why the tax breaks? Is it just plain bribery, i.e. the tech guys bribing the local government? Because if there's little local benefit, why give them the tax breaks at all? Somebody must be getting something from this deal, otherwise why not tax them as much as possible - they'd have to build somewhere anyway, and if nobody gets any benefit locally, then nobody should be giving them the tax break. I suspect there's some benefit at least to somebody here. Is that just the bribery benefit or there's more to it?
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