The Data Center Boom Won’t Save Us! Here’s The Big Risk With AI
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What to make of data center USA? Two pretty interesting stories. find more of them out there as well about what’s going to happen. What’s going to happen after the data center boom is gone? It’s not going to last forever. Most certainly killing it right now. There was one in the Wall Street Journal, one in the New York Times, which I found fascinating. And they’re highlighting areas of the country. Data centers right now.
Most data centers are at about 1 % of the counties around the country. So they’re concentrated. They like them that way. It’s easier for information to move between data centers. I want to talk a little about the story. were talking about in Oregon and this data center area there and the boom that they have seen in their town. Actually, one of the main things that was in that town was a bloody chemical weapons
depot where they kept sarin gas. I that stuff was illegal. Anyway, neither here nor there, they’re Right now they are booming. The need for electricians and contractors and all sorts of things to build out these data centers and they’re going to be building for some time. The concern, the concern that many are asking a little bit more so in the New York Times article rather than the Wall Street Journal, well,
what happens after the build out is completed. Who works inside these data centers? How many people do these data centers actually employ? Not many. Not many. Security, yeah, a lot of security. Yeah, obviously you’re have some people that have gotta be able to fix things from time to time, but not that many. And again,
It’s almost like, again, a lot of these reporters, they fail to take a look at what has happened throughout history. First and foremost, this applies to business, this applies to communities. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.
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It’s the way it is. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. I’m from upstate New York, it’s where I grew up, upstate New York. you could think about the amount of boom towns all along the Mohawk River, even all the way up past up and through Lake Champlain, all of these waterways. You had the Erie Canal, which brought goods.
to the Great Lakes, which could then bring goods to Chicago and stopping on these various different spots along the way. Many of these places now, it’s pretty darn depressed. People talk about the rust belt and communities and towns that used to be doing things that are no longer.
how to go about preventing things like happening in these new boom towns with data centers. Well, one of the major areas is up in Northern Virginia. Okay, they’re close to Washington, D.C. So their money is flowing there all the time. I’m sure they’re going to be just fine and figure something out. But you have to be abreast of this. And hopefully you get community leaders there that are aware that this building boom is going to end.
and you might want to be looking for the next thing. Again, this area in particular when we were talking about in Oregon, it’s always been a rural community and you know from the interviews that they did, the people like it that way. They like it being a small town. Again, a lot of housing going up right now. Real estate agents are doing very well, but what is going to come next?
Again, if you’re not growing, you’re dying. And this is what happens to communities if they don’t stay ahead of things, if they don’t remain competitive. What comes after the data centers when they go away? Again, nothing new.
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Nothing new. you just have to, whoever needs to understand, okay, this is great. Okay, there’s a lot of money to be made during the build out. Once these things are built out, not as much.
Then what?
Then what’s next? And that’s how everything should be. Business owner run a business. What’s next? What’s coming down the pike? What changes are going to take place? How can we stay ahead of this? That’s what good leadership does and this is how this needs to be handled. Hopefully, okay, all of the gains and the money that these communities are making. Obviously, they’re reaping obviously a lot more when it comes to property taxes.
Hopefully they’re not getting too gusts going crazy with hiring way too many government workers because these data centers quite frankly, they oftentimes they pay a VIG. They don’t pay full property taxes like everybody else does. Those are the deals that they cut. Sometimes they make a one time payment. Sometimes it’s an ongoing payment, but it’s not nearly what everyone else is paying. Don’t blow that money on stupidity. Don’t.
Some of the areas you actually see they’re doing a good job trying to train kids in high school, various different trades, robotics, something that’s gonna be coming down the pike. Stick with that.
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Stick with that. Don’t blow money like the folks in Washington DC. You want to keep your community afloat? You want to keep it solid after the AI building boom is gone? Do that. Watchdogonwallstreet.com.
