alt Hacker NewsAnd this gamble is paid for by American taxpayers, increased cost of utilities, and multibillion dollar corporations receiving tax breaks/subsidies from the cities/counties they build in.
This country is so awful. Great if you are rich. Awful if you are not in this top 0.01-1%.
A massive $79T has been transferred from bottom 90% to top 1% since the 1970s. [1]
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There's some of that but the vast majority is paid with private sector stuff - business profits and investor money.
To be intellectually honest about it, you have to answer a bunch of questions:
1. Awful compared to what? 2. Was there an equivalent transfer outside America? 3. What is the cause? What ratio rent-seeking/shady activity vs a consequence of natural forces (e.g. technological change)
If it’s any consolation, I’m rich yet the country is still shit. (Comparing to Europe as a previous immigrant of Western Europe.
> A massive $79T has been transferred from bottom 90% to top 1% since the 1970s
This assertion is based on comparing reality with a counterfactual where income distributions remained static from 1975 to the present. Real median personal income roughly doubled over this time period.
The use of the word "transferred" seems a little intellectually dishonest here. The use of the counterfactual seems to suggest that income distribution has no relationship with growth in total income, and total income would have been exactly the same regardless of income distribution. I see no reason to assume that to be the case.
Not to mention all the land being gobbled up to build these data centers.
I love how they say with a straight face that when AI takes over they will finally share all the fruits of capital with us.