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US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

theguardian.com

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Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#121

Post by AviationAtom »

raychis wrote: post #25

People aren’t mad about technology. They’re mad about being told after the fact that their town might lose water, power, quiet, or tax revenue to a project they didn't have a say in. Build the future, sure. But don’t sneak it past the people who have to live next to it. If you have to sneak it like that, then maybe it is not worth having. Get sick of all the shady behaviour and lying. These companies, owners, and CEO…

What gets me though is that hyperscale data centers are nothing new, they've been around for the better part of two decades. What appears to have changed is the arrival of TikTok "reporters" and cryptomining operations being taken for AI data centers.

Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#122

Post by AviationAtom »

skybrian wrote: post #71
doublerabbit wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When do enterprises ever proper pay tax? If they did we all would be better off. They will pay the minimum tax and that will then be pocketed by the local politicians who pushed for the DC. The town gets a pittance compared to the profit produced from these DCs. One of the incentives to build in these areas are that they can pay low tax in the first place.

My understanding is that local governments often get more in tax revenue than they spend on additional services. Which explains why they want to do it. Example: https://wjla.com/news/local/loudoun-county-virginia-taxes-da... > In January, Loudoun County estimated about $895 million in data center real and personal property tax revenue, and the county’s entire operating budget was projected to be $940 million, accordi…

They have built something like 34 schools, public transit, all kind of projects. It's all in political approach as to how tax windfalls get spent. Here they plan to credit homestead tax bills, eventually down to $0.

Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#123

Post by nfw2 »

piva00 wrote: post #86
nfw2 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A hundred is a lot bigger than five

Still very few for deserving a tax break based on potential employment opportunities. A DC simply doesn't help the local economy, it's very often a net-negative: it's very resource-intensive while not generating much in terms of economical activity for where it sits at. In a sense it's purely extractivist consuming land, water, and energy without benefits to the community.

They consume land? Where does the land go?

Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#124

Post by nfw2 »

danaris wrote: post #113
nfw2 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can be taxed. There should be a point where the price is right for the community hosting.

The vast majority of tax revenue is calculated where the headquarters are located, not where the datacenter is located. I've seen multiple stories already talking about how these installations are almost universally net-negative for the locales they're built in.

If this is the case why would local officials permit them?

Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#125

Post by Zigurd »

naturalmovement wrote: post #76
Hamuko wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did our demand for social media apps suddenly blow up? Because our DC demand seems to be blowing up.

I'm curious how the HN zeitgeist hates datacenters so ferociously yet every third article posted to the front page is 800 comments beating off to a new Claude feature. It's mind-boggling.

Let's assume you're not lumping all data centers in together in bad faith. Just like Elon's tunnels are not a subway system, a repurposed crypto mine isn't a real AI data center. There's a right way to build, fund, and power data centers, and a sketchy, unethical, greedy, polluting, inflationary, and financially corrupt way to do it.

Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#126

Post by Zigurd »

thegrim33 wrote: post #81
naturalmovement wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how the HN zeitgeist hates datacenters so ferociously yet every third article posted to the front page is 800 comments beating off to a new Claude feature. It's mind-boggling.

Half the traffic on this site are real, intelligent humans (among whom opinion is split different ways on the AI topic), a quarter of the traffic is propagandists trying to destroy western tech/infrastructure/society (notice how China apparently doesn't have to stop AI development or datacenter development, only the West does), and the remaining quarter is real humans who have been utterly consumed by the previously…

You're thinking of trains and rail lines. They deployed an obnoxious billionaire to dig tunnels that are useless and to propagandize against mass transit, while building the world's envy of a rail system.

On the other hand, the Chinese lag way behind in data centers. Odd.

Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#127

Post by zeristor »

AviationAtom wrote: post #117
Danox wrote: post #2

The honeymoon is over. Among regular citizens, gamers and some groups of tech, many are now incensed by the cost of memory, I was once mildly enthusiastic about AI but now not so much.

Once the demand from AI companies lets up there will be some bangin' deals

If you want to by a RAM chip factory in a cyclical fire sale.

Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#128

Post by LocalH »

_sys49152 wrote: post #106
LocalH wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a whole lot of presumption about who I am, so much so that it deserves flagging. I'm not anywhere close to Redmond and you don't know me at all. Pro tip: I live in Tennessee. Don't worry, you get to insult that state all you want. Fuck Tennessee.

local h was a nirvana precursor and im not doing a flamewar but just one or two foot tappers from them thats it.

All of their albums are bangers

Lemme guess, the only thing you've heard from them is Bound for the Floor (aka "the copacetic song")

Way to attack the messenger

I'm 46 by the way. So I'm not young

Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#129

Post by joquarky »

nfw2 wrote: post #124
danaris wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of tax revenue is calculated where the headquarters are located, not where the datacenter is located. I've seen multiple stories already talking about how these installations are almost universally net-negative for the locales they're built in.

If this is the case why would local officials permit them?

Why do members of congress end up with more wealth than their salary could justify?

Re: US residents angry datacenters 'shoved down our throats' are recalling officials

#130

Post by joquarky »

LocalH wrote: post #95
classified wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> before the wound underneath turns into gangrene Too late. The vampires have tasted blood and they will not be stopped.

So we just need to figure out what, exactly, is their garlic. We need to discover their silver dagger

Their reality is shaped by their enormous egos, so look for the blind spots.
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