[xyst]

And 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]

[1] https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-2.html

[jryan49]

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.

[BosunoB]

Y'all gotta stop looking at politics this way.

You know why they don't share the fruits of capital with us now? Because Americans hate getting taxed to pay for welfare, and so they've been voting against taxes for 50 years. This whole political landscape changes when people lose their jobs to AI, a thing that everyone thinks should be taxed. In fact, the entire ideological underpinning behind extreme wealth accumulation is gone when AI runs everything.

[scrollop]

Saw a video summarising this on gamersnexus today and it is nauseating - especially Jensen.

[rozap]

The French had a tool for this problem.

[coffeemug]

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)

[throwmeaway820]

> 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.

[yifanl]

Well you have a data point of one, so I guess we live in the best of all possible outcomes?

[BloondAndDoom]

If it’s any consolation, I’m rich yet the country is still shit. (Comparing to Europe as a previous immigrant of Western Europe.

[hattmall]

Other than a few parasitic industries it's pretty great. If we can just get some common sense reforms in insurance, healthcare, advertising, and reverse some regulatory capture it would be comparably utopic.

[tim333]

There's some of that but the vast majority is paid with private sector stuff - business profits and investor money.

[francisofascii]

Not to mention all the land being gobbled up to build these data centers.

[jl6]

Of all the externalities under discussion, I think land use is a very minor one.

[sQL_inject]

Most of this land was low-utility anyway. You should realise it is good for the land owners to convert it to high yield output, which in turn the government can tax and return some of the gains to the people.

What's the alternative ?