>Yes, absolutely. What do local residents get out of the data centers?

Jobs in places where there usually aren't any. Some of these places are nearly dead or dying towns/communities and they're getting a huge jolt of new economic activity. Once the data centers are built there will be a steady base of new workers/jobs to maintain them.

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nemomarx a day ago | parent | next [-]

How many long term jobs for locals do they create after construction? My experience with similar booms in fracking is that you get a lot of out of town workers and some local jobs catering to them for 2-3 years and then it's pretty quiet and the money slows to a trickle once they've built up infrastructure.

DCs need some guards, some highly trained technicians, and that's mostly it, right? maybe 20-30 jobs per? That's not exactly opening up a new major employer like a factory or steel mill.

If you're facing local protests, my suggestion is offer to fund their schools for 5 years with a bond or something like that. Put the company name on a new power plant. It won't take up most of the cost of building and it'll probably get town hall to approve the zoning for you.

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MaxHoppersGhost a day ago | parent | next [-]

That many employees in a community of a few thousand or even 20 thousand is a massive boost to the local economy. Some places these things are being built have had declining populations for decades and haven't had new jobs in as many years as well.

They aren't building steel mills or factories in too many places these days - why do people keep comparing these to data centers as if it's even an option?

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bluefirebrand a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> some highly trained technicians, and that's mostly it, right?

Do they even need the technicians on full time? I feel like those are flown out if something is wrong and otherwise can just monitor remotely?

	▲	toast0 a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		All of the data centers I've worked with have had technicians onsite 24/7. There's just a lot of stuff that sometimes needs doing that's easier with someone there. I'm sure they pull in from outside the area for large jobs like major equipment refreshes or major network changes. But for day to day stuff (and there's always day to day stuff), it's just a couple people. Some days, they're very busy and my lowpri tickets take a long time to get worked, other days my tickets get completed in minutes. I know some companies are driving towards less intervention with racked hardware and will wait to disturb a rack until several units have failed, but you still need someone to work on those when they hit the threshold. And it's nice to have someone onsite for simple things like replacing a failing cable.
	▲	limagnolia a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		A large mega-datacenter, like the ones they appear to be talking about here, do generally have a significant onsite, full time staff.

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austin-cheney a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This has been repeatedly debunked. Data centers provide temporary construction jobs, but those jobs are rarely local unless built in a major metropolitan area. Otherwise the data centers are almost completely automated. The Facebook data center near where I live is absolutely massive and employs about 150 people. Its 5 buildings each about a 1000ft long and 2 or 3 stories, if there is nothing underground.

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MaxHoppersGhost a day ago | parent [-]

150 employees in a community of a few thousand or even 20 thousand is a massive boost to the local economy. Some places these things are being built have had declining populations for decades and haven't been new jobs in as many years as well.

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austin-cheney a day ago | parent [-]

That is numerically irrational. If a data center consumes enough water and power for a community of 20,000 what do those local residents get in return?

This is numerically simple. How much money do these data centers return to the local community and how much do they cost the local community. It’s a catastrophic net-negative for all parties except the owner and the construction crew.

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MaxHoppersGhost a day ago | parent [-]

>If a data center consumes enough water and power for a community of 20,000 what do those local residents get in return?

Source? We live in America and, except for some areas like the southwest, there are reservoirs everywhere with loads of water.

	▲	austin-cheney 20 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Where in the US is there unlimited fresh water for municipal consumption? Does data center construction include the expenses of building out additional reservoirs?

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verdverm a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Jobs in places where there usually aren't any ... a huge jolt of new economic activity.

This is the incorrect analysis because it is not what is happening. If you can understand this, you can start to understand the resistance. Data centers are a tangible proxy to Ai and the Oligarchy. They look like the globalization, financialization, and deregulation that wrecked the economies they had prior - on steroids.

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MaxHoppersGhost a day ago | parent [-]

I've seen this happening in rural Louisiana with my own eyes and ears.

	▲	verdverm a day ago \| parent [-]
		perhaps you could share a link with us my understanding is that there are cases where it is not as bad, but by and large - and through history (corporate tax break attractions) - this has not been the case, outcomes are very situational

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msandford a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How many jobs vs how much does the price of power go up? And are they good paying jobs or are they the equivalent of being a 3PL order packer but for swapping drives?

	▲	limagnolia a day ago \| parent [-]
		If you have competent utility regulations and competent utility regulators, the price of electricity won't go up.... so maybe we should fix that?

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Toynbeeidea a day ago | parent | prev [-]

None of those yokels qualify (even if they do). No, you need to bring in h1bs for pennies on the dollar.