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TFA cites "Each project requires thousands of skilled workers during the two to six year construction period (nearly 10,000 in Mount Pleasant)" so maybe it's no

by ofrzeta 2mo ago

TFA cites "Each project requires thousands of skilled workers during the two to six year construction period (nearly 10,000 in Mount Pleasant)" so maybe it's not totally fiction (at least during build time).

bob001 2mo ago
To me that's not sustainable. It just brings in outside workers, distorts the economy in bad way for locals through increased costs, distorts their daily life in a bad way and then it all goes away leaving a void in its wake. Like the olympics.
- ianm218 2mo ago
  The Olympics are seen as a net negative for local economies though because it requires tons of local investment for a temporary payoff so the juice (billions of dollars of infra) isn’t worth the squeeze (a few weeks of high utilization followed by a glut). For data centers you get a medium term boost to the economy + long term tax revenue. The externalities of data centers are quite low if you don’t put them right in someone’s neighborhood.
- throwaway2037 2mo ago
  This is a weird comment to me. Think about green energy, specifically solar panels and wind farms. Almost by definition, the jobs created are only during installation. (Ok, there is a little bit of long-term maintenance, but a tiny fraction.) Would you say the same about those projects? It is unavoidable that the modern world needs data centers (how many is open for debate). It is a fact of life that most of the jobs associated with data centers are during the installation, not the ongoing maintenance. Again: Are you trying to say that building any and all data centers is bad for your reasons? I will give another example: When a company builds a highly automated factory, the same occurs. Inside the factory, there are very few highly skills jobs. Most of them are low skill (moving boxes and refilling automated machines that are cheaper than automating the work). Again: Are you saying that we should not be building these highly automated factories for your reasons?
  - tokioyoyo 2mo ago
    > It is unavoidable that the modern world needs data centers (how many is open for debate) You know, I’m currently having drinks with a friend who has no connection to the tech world, and asked him about this line explicitly curious of what he thinks about it. He said “I have no idea why such things would be unavoidable”. And that is the sentiment of the general populace towards AI/DCs and etc.
    - throwaway2037 2mo ago
      Your reply is disingenuous. > a friend who has no connection to the tech world I assume that you mean that they do not work in the tech world. However, surely they use lots of tech services in their life. Do they stream film/TV on NetFlix or YouTube? Do they use social media like Facebook or Insagram or TikTok? Does they use email? Do they use WhatsApp or message to chat with friends/family on their mobile phone? Do they have "cloud storage" for their photos? Do they shop online using Amazon? Do they use Google Maps for navigation? I assume that most adults do at least some of these things. Where does they think the servers run behind the scenes? Simple: In a data center. Now ask your friend to imagine his life without all of those things, because all of them require data centers.
      - defrost 2mo ago
        What I'm hearing here is that it's yourself struggling to imagine life w/out data centres. > ask your friend to imagine his life As for friends, I have a number of friends not dissimilar to Jill Churnside: https://tracksweshare.com.au/artist/jill-churnside/ https://tracksweshare.com.au/artist/jill-churnside/ You know, not a "he" (as many on this planet are not). and even programmers who are happy to live with home servers and local LANs.
ModernMech 2mo ago
My sister dates a guy who works on these kinds of projects. He’s based out of Chicago, and goes to remote places like Idaho or Ohio to build them. They put him up in cheap temporary housing, I guess that generates some local money, but he’s very quickly moving on to the next job. They’re not hiring locals for these tasks, they don’t have the skills. The people who are benefitting are mostly local landlords.
- throwaway2037 2mo ago
  [dead]
pibaker 2mo ago
If comrade1234 has to get contractors from 90 miles away just to clear some trees, there is no way they are going to hire locals to build a data center.

by ofrzeta 2mo ago

bob001 2mo ago

To me that's not sustainable. It just brings in outside workers, distorts the economy in bad way for locals through increased costs, distorts their daily life in a bad way and then it all goes away leaving a void in its wake. Like the olympics.

ianm218 2mo ago
The Olympics are seen as a net negative for local economies though because it requires tons of local investment for a temporary payoff so the juice (billions of dollars of infra) isn’t worth the squeeze (a few weeks of high utilization followed by a glut). For data centers you get a medium term boost to the economy + long term tax revenue. The externalities of data centers are quite low if you don’t put them right in someone’s neighborhood.
throwaway2037 2mo ago
This is a weird comment to me. Think about green energy, specifically solar panels and wind farms. Almost by definition, the jobs created are only during installation. (Ok, there is a little bit of long-term maintenance, but a tiny fraction.) Would you say the same about those projects? It is unavoidable that the modern world needs data centers (how many is open for debate). It is a fact of life that most of the jobs associated with data centers are during the installation, not the ongoing maintenance. Again: Are you trying to say that building any and all data centers is bad for your reasons? I will give another example: When a company builds a highly automated factory, the same occurs. Inside the factory, there are very few highly skills jobs. Most of them are low skill (moving boxes and refilling automated machines that are cheaper than automating the work). Again: Are you saying that we should not be building these highly automated factories for your reasons?
- tokioyoyo 2mo ago
  > It is unavoidable that the modern world needs data centers (how many is open for debate) You know, I’m currently having drinks with a friend who has no connection to the tech world, and asked him about this line explicitly curious of what he thinks about it. He said “I have no idea why such things would be unavoidable”. And that is the sentiment of the general populace towards AI/DCs and etc.
  - throwaway2037 2mo ago
    Your reply is disingenuous. > a friend who has no connection to the tech world I assume that you mean that they do not work in the tech world. However, surely they use lots of tech services in their life. Do they stream film/TV on NetFlix or YouTube? Do they use social media like Facebook or Insagram or TikTok? Does they use email? Do they use WhatsApp or message to chat with friends/family on their mobile phone? Do they have "cloud storage" for their photos? Do they shop online using Amazon? Do they use Google Maps for navigation? I assume that most adults do at least some of these things. Where does they think the servers run behind the scenes? Simple: In a data center. Now ask your friend to imagine his life without all of those things, because all of them require data centers.
    - defrost 2mo ago
      What I'm hearing here is that it's yourself struggling to imagine life w/out data centres. > ask your friend to imagine his life As for friends, I have a number of friends not dissimilar to Jill Churnside: https://tracksweshare.com.au/artist/jill-churnside/ https://tracksweshare.com.au/artist/jill-churnside/ You know, not a "he" (as many on this planet are not). and even programmers who are happy to live with home servers and local LANs.

ModernMech 2mo ago

My sister dates a guy who works on these kinds of projects. He’s based out of Chicago, and goes to remote places like Idaho or Ohio to build them. They put him up in cheap temporary housing, I guess that generates some local money, but he’s very quickly moving on to the next job. They’re not hiring locals for these tasks, they don’t have the skills. The people who are benefitting are mostly local landlords.

throwaway2037 2mo ago
[dead]

pibaker 2mo ago

If comrade1234 has to get contractors from 90 miles away just to clear some trees, there is no way they are going to hire locals to build a data center.