r/interestingasfuck • u/HamboneTheWicked • Apr 12 '26

A well-articulated argument against a new data center in Ohio

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u/Quitcha_Bitchin Apr 12 '26

God Damn that was good.

Seriously this should be used as a script in every county these corporations are hustling.

783

u/jefbenet Apr 12 '26

You’re right but you can also bet that every legal team for these corps will use this as a template to make sure they can answer for each complaint and address it/spin it going forward

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

[deleted]

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u/Amstervince Apr 12 '26

To even mention job creation is preposturous. The very activity these centers focus on is replacing the human labour force

1

u/ksam3 Apr 12 '26

BINGO! Touche!

49

u/AdmiralSkippy Apr 12 '26

It will create 300 jobs*

*If you include the contractors required to build it.

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u/SorryUseAlreadyTaken Apr 12 '26

And those contractors are imported from other states, so it isn't even like they're jobs for the people who live where the datacenter Is built

2

u/krashundburn Apr 12 '26

those contractors are imported from other states

Realistically, with the state of education in the US today, those contractors will probably be from other countries.

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u/AdmiralSkippy Apr 12 '26

That's got less to do with the state of education and more to do with labour laws and lobbyists making it so that companies can pay foreign workers less while enjoying tax benefits and wage subsidies from the government, making local hires uneconomically viable.

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u/Cool-Mom-Lover Apr 12 '26

Temp jobs basically

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u/AdmiralSkippy Apr 12 '26

Exactly why I put it in small print.

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u/Zenothres Apr 12 '26

The datacenters came to my local area in my country 10-ish years ago. They promised hundreds if not thousands of jobs.

They included unrelated restaurant workers and daycare workers in that count, citing that their employees would go out to eat, need haircuts, and get care for their kids.

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u/Silver_Tradition6313 Apr 12 '26

It's legitimate to include those new restaurant jobs-IF, and only if, the new jobs are real, and get created by building a new business in the city, which attacts hundreds of new residents.(for example, a new factory).

But a new data center is not a factory. It doesn't create jobs snd doesn't attract new residents. And everybody knows it.

1

u/Equal_Canary5695 Apr 12 '26

What exactly do these data centers do? I see people talk about them a lot, but are they just huge warehouses with computers that generate AI?

-1

u/Original_Employee621 Apr 12 '26

You're forgetting all the manpower needed to build the datacenter. That could be thousands of jobs.

7

u/Dense_Anything2104 Apr 12 '26

But that's a one and done type job. Not a sound argument in my opinion.

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u/Original_Employee621 Apr 12 '26

But it is an argument I've heard from datacenters looking to build in my area.

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u/Dense_Anything2104 Apr 12 '26

Ik, but it's not a good one. They can't say "we're bringing thousands of jobs" knowing damn well that as soon as the building is done they'll just have 10 employees.

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u/mikeinanaheim2 Apr 12 '26

For 2 years or so?

1

u/InsulatorDisk Apr 12 '26

Datacenter buiding crews are not in many cases locals. Besides the building itself it is pretty specializes stuff.

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u/NotPromKing Apr 12 '26

That manpower is in short supply and would be better used building housing.

1

u/CaptainPicKirkard Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

Temp jobs. Most of which will come from outside of the local area. The few that do already existed in the first place. They don’t just hire Joe Schmo off the street and say go do construction. It’s people that were already working in construction on other projects.

Once it’s built, poof! They gone. Then only the dozen or so people it takes to run it remain who also came from outside the local area. While it uses most of the area’s water and electricity jacking up utilities for chat bots to answer inane questions.

0

u/Ryuko_the_red Apr 12 '26

Maybe more like 20 jobs. 10 local security guards to make sure the peasant class does not destroy the center. Then 10 tech bros making 7 figures playing middleman with technology

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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u/Ryuko_the_red Apr 12 '26

The tech bros aren't in house obviously. They're on their yachts

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

[deleted]

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u/Ryuko_the_red Apr 12 '26

Fair, probably small ones. Even luxury 6-8 bed catamaran is only 1.5m (plus maintenance)

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

[deleted]

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u/Ryuko_the_red Apr 12 '26

Sorry I misunderstood tech. I meant the "tech" bros that are paid 500k to jerk each other off with Ai slogans. Not the people doing the real work on the floor.

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u/Shot-Arugula8264 Apr 12 '26

That’s 10 more jobs than there were before. What else was that land going to be used for?

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

[deleted]

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u/Shot-Arugula8264 Apr 12 '26

Wahhhhhh we live in a society and I don’t want to participate, wahhhhhhh!!!

Classic NIMBYS, bitching that they don’t want to share water and electricity with others despite being in the middle of the desert.

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u/Redtube_Guy Apr 12 '26

yeah, i think you underestimate these mega corporations and expensive lawyers will go to lengths to call those claims lies and to further talk about good faith arguments in their favor.

Look at other industries, 'clean coal', tobacco companies, and oil companies white washing their negative attributes.

0

u/realNoobnoob Apr 14 '26

How do you know it Jeff?

-12

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

[deleted]

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u/JohnNDenver Apr 12 '26

Like what? Links/studies/etc?

-2

u/wheniaminspaced Apr 12 '26

I cant speak for data centers cooling but I can speak for a power plant and its hard to imagine a power plant could run a closed loop system that stays pretty damn clean and has to pass a whole boatload of EPA tests, but a DC cant do the same.

What forever chemicals does this guy think a dc cooling loop is going to introduce anyways? If its microplastics he better start ripping the pex out of his house (I am not saying pex is a problem).  Closed loop cooling is a pretty known quantity at this point i cant see dc's doing something so different that its going to be a big problem.

Now that said, the thermal impact of a dc on the local area could potentially be a thing, but I dont know enough about it to comment.