logoalt Hacker News

jscottmillerlast Wednesday at 1:39 AM2 repliesview on HN

This is false - the way these data centers are financed and built is a direct result of the financial and legal systems established and enforced by our government. I do not say this to argue for more or less construction, but to point out that it is as much a creation of our society as the NHS is of the UK.


Replies

eli_gottlieblast Wednesday at 1:46 AM

Nonetheless, we did not vote directly for or against any particular data-center. They don't go up for a vote that way. It would take forever and nothing would get built if you gave voters a possible veto on literally every single thing.

jeffbeelast Wednesday at 1:42 AM

I have a hard time seeing the truth of your statement. If I think about where Google's largest data centers are located in America, they are all on former industrial sites that had access to large amounts of power and water, like the old Gatorade factory in Oklahoma. While you can argue I guess that this choice, like everything else, was the product of all choices made by society prior, I am not seeing a direct connection between financial and legal incentives and the siting of those data centers.