Wouldn't the market just expand to absorb the extra demand?
Comment on Data centers need electricity, utilities need years to build – who should pay?
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 4 days agoWhen unemployment is low in the construction sector, we can’t have them pay. When they pay, they’ll outbid for workers who were previously building homes and public infrastructure. We’d either have to outbid cloud for these workers, or we’d pay by having higher housing prices and crumbling infrastructure, which incurs other social costs. Real resources are finite.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 4 days ago
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
The demand for construction workers? If so, it could, if there’s enough unemployment. Otherwise workers from some other industry would shift. Creating a shortage there. Switching industries is a more difficult process though. But if there’s already a labour shortage in the construction industry, then that answers the question. There isn’t enough unemployment or shifting from other industries to fill the demand.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 4 days ago
The resources are finite whether the taxpayers pay or the corporation that needs the electric upgrade pays.
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
Yes and my point is that even if the corpo pays, which it absolutely should, that’s not the end of the economic effect when that resource is used to the limit at the moment. We will end up paying too.