It’s okay, Trump signed that executive order telling them to provide their own power for data centers. Which means now our tax dollars won’t just be used for data centers, they’ll be used for power plants too. Another executive order or two and we’ll see company towns come back.
Which means now our tax dollars won’t just be used for data centers, they’ll be used for power plants too.
Sure… maybe…
Part of the problem with power plant construction is that our production capacity is largely maxed out. If you want a new gas power plant, you go on a waiting list that’s two years long (conservatively). Wind and Solar production are also at their domestic limit. Nuclear continues to be a pipe dream.
And, again, it cannot be overstressed that turning on a data center means a net-negative cash flow. These facilities cost more to operate than they earn, even under a ludicrously generous state contract. Why would you want to power them on these terms?
I think some people look at this arrangement and say “This is unsustainable, the cards have to come down at some point”, because it is a fucking stupid way to run an economy.
But, like… the money keeps flowing. And it keeps flowing because the Fed and the Treasury are implicitly backstopping the malinvestment. And their pockets are functionally endless.
I wish you could just roll your eyes and make these abhorrent economic decisions stop. But I’m afraid these people might legit die trillionaires without a regret in the world (other than failing to solve Immortality Science with an LLM), because we’ve stacked the economic deck so high up in their favor.
The pockets might be endless, but if you keep pulling stuff out without something real going in you end up pulling out handfuls of lint and nothing else.
It’s okay, Trump signed that executive order telling them to provide their own power for data centers. Which means now our tax dollars won’t just be used for data centers, they’ll be used for power plants too. Another executive order or two and we’ll see company towns come back.
It’s gonna be company towns with only 8 or 9 residents though. And only 2-3 will actually go into the data center.
Sure… maybe…
Part of the problem with power plant construction is that our production capacity is largely maxed out. If you want a new gas power plant, you go on a waiting list that’s two years long (conservatively). Wind and Solar production are also at their domestic limit. Nuclear continues to be a pipe dream.
And, again, it cannot be overstressed that turning on a data center means a net-negative cash flow. These facilities cost more to operate than they earn, even under a ludicrously generous state contract. Why would you want to power them on these terms?
Hence the sarcasm dripping from my statement.
I think some people look at this arrangement and say “This is unsustainable, the cards have to come down at some point”, because it is a fucking stupid way to run an economy.
But, like… the money keeps flowing. And it keeps flowing because the Fed and the Treasury are implicitly backstopping the malinvestment. And their pockets are functionally endless.
I wish you could just roll your eyes and make these abhorrent economic decisions stop. But I’m afraid these people might legit die trillionaires without a regret in the world (other than failing to solve Immortality Science with an LLM), because we’ve stacked the economic deck so high up in their favor.
The pockets might be endless, but if you keep pulling stuff out without something real going in you end up pulling out handfuls of lint and nothing else.
LintCoin’s value is through the roof, though. You’d be a fool not to hand them all your boring old American dollars.
And don’t even get me started on TulipCoin.