I Worked At A Google Data Center: What I Saw Will Shock You.
Taxpayers in Texas and Virginia are subsidizing data centers by handing out over $1 billion a year to tech companies.
More than 30 states subsidize data centers and Big Tech with massive tax breaks.
And while CEOs have promised thousands of jobs, they haven’t materialized.
—–
More Perfect Union is an Emmy-winning, nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to build power for working people. Here’s what that means: We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective. We attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions. We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power. And we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems.
To support our independent journalism, subscribe, donate, and follow our other pages through the links below:
– Help fund our reporting: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mpu-splash
– Substack: https://substack.perfectunion.us/
– TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@moreperfectunion
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS
– Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/moreperfectunion.bsky.social
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MorePerfectUS
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perfectunion/
– Threads: https://www.threads.net/@perfectunion
– Website: https://www.perfectunion.us
Comments
Latest news
@SaintCyprianOfAntioch
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Analogy. “Digging your own grave” is what I see when these workers are building these centres.
@RonnieDavis-x1f
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Say no ! They get the tax break and you foot the bill plus it takes a nuclear reactor and tons of water to cool, where is that water going to come from? Bad for the environment and your financial well being ! You have been warned.
@damagingthebrand7387
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Those jobs are short term jobs.
@NicoleConner-dd1tf
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
They all have ND agreements. This is how they'll force us into agenda 2030. We'll live in their 15 minute cities which are really slave camps and UN camps for displaced. Anytime they sell something as improving or security for our lives is a lie. Just like the migrants would create jobs and tax revenue. They do nothing and have funnelled stolen tax dollars for elites and their projects.
@NicoleConner-dd1tf
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Tax payers pay for them and their infrastructure but they don't pay taxes on property or sales. They're stealing land and resources we need to survive. They contribute nothing to community and we're paying for them to profit at the cost of human lives. They outsource all construction work and Blackrock is buying all electric companies to control how much we use and what we'll pay. Same evil people screaming climate change funding mandates and cow farts are killing us.
@J.D.Schmidt
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Yeah, let’s give the people with more money than they could spend huge tax breaks, and put it on the people who can’t even afford a roof over their heads. America sucks.
@gokaren420
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Hackers gonna have a field day.
These behemoths will hurt all life. Humans animals plants. Environmental disaster making people sick. Complain to your congressman . Citizens
@abelflores1593
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Texas is in a 20 year drought. they don’t have enough water for all the data centers.
@BakerTeamRaven
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Crony Calitalism is the perversion of Capitalism.
@BakerTeamRaven
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Private Equities duty is to increase profits for shareholders.
@alexhallman9127
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Million seconds is 11 days. Billion seconds is 31.69 years. Tax wealth, not labor.
@TheDedicatedDrifter
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
The song the electricians were listening on their way to work in the truck was titles "NO HOPE" lmao, quite fitting
@JamesLandon-yk1no
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Anytime a big corporation says they are doing a great favor for the local community I'm dubious. Destroying large tracts of land, rent increases, increase in electric bills and depletion of water resources. Greed rules.
@Monicablackbelt24
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Why are the people paying for the electricity and water??????
@bamby5211
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
It makes me angry that we are having to pay for these data centers through our electric bills!! We are paying for something that we did not ask for let alone want in our community's.
@chanman4rings
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
@11:51 Excuse me sir, if we passed the common sense test, then we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with
These Texas cities (and any other depending on data centers) are so cooked in the long run. Let's do a follow-up in 10 years on this video. These towns are going to be depressed wastelands with poisoned soil and water sources. The jobs being "created" are mostly construction jobs, once the centers are built then they require very few human beings to be on site on a regular basis to maintain. The workers leave and follow the jobs. There go your people spending money at restaurants, attending town functions. They're going to follow the money and rinse and repeat. Very few people are going to be like, I want to setup shop in the middle of the Permian Basin in Texas
@joelmcentire1
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
This is Democrat brain rot
@Exposing-The-Badge
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
we have 109 data centers here in Indiana, 48% of all electricity used statewide is from data centers and we are covering the costs
@BruceBerry-g4b
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
So leave, eventually they will have to higher wages
@BeelP.
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
The US gets its economy growing by serially blowing bubble after bubble.
@AllisonM_LS
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
We can't think of these "companies" as anything other than your big brother government with better than average marketing departments. There's nothing "private" about any of this. This is your digital prison come life. The transhumanist agenda in its final stages.
@jennymisteqq695
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
There’s so many downsides to Data Centers. They’re building one in New Orleans (where I live), and it’s being hyped by city officials and the governor the same way they all are. Except we now know all the downsides. They don’t deliver on number of jobs promised. They consume lots of energy and water that people are unaware of until they’re in operation.
I’m reading about all the promises, aspirations and excitement in today’s Sunday paper. How can people not know the truth by now?
@ezshmee59
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Supposedly datacenters create infra-sound that can make people ill.
@EdwardStrishock
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Falling for the lies , hook , line and sinker
@Balanced3645
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
https://youtu.be/xXekvuJ7_fA?si=kRYdf–TL5HKiLh0
@ip-sum
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
"it is very dystopian" 😂
@thewatchersofthewood3530
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
I work in network at a small data center. These places do not make jobs. Once hardware is deployed it will effectively not be touched again until obsolete or there is some equipment failure. 1 tech can support thousands of servers and row after row of racks. Of course there will be building matinance, HVAC, power systems but those are small jobs compaired to the millions of hardware installed.
@Entspannung123
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Tax the ultra rich
@debbiejournigan270
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Going to make you sick going to react with all those nano particles in you so if your not sick right now then get prepared it's a plan
@Light-Power1111
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
We need local small community farms all you states and counties not letting people grow their own food and those who are giving tax breaks and permit ect ect breaks to data centers… You are terrorists you are likely paid bribed by whats left of deep state. Your are committing treason you will be held accountable.
The old game is over the new game is only getting stronger and better time to make choices from the heart for life for clean food for clean air clean air waves and everything pro natural organic life
@okzoomer5728
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
These are surveillance centers. Think 1984. They do nothing but harm American citizens on every level. All they are really good for is tinder.
@lariahthefathersapostle7396
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Apparently the locals pay the energy to run these facilities. All in all, after the job is done, so is the community.
@dianaroach3093
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
We don't need data centers. Just watch the cost of your electric and water bill go up. Why should they get a tax break? Any time the government is pushing is something. Usually means it's bad for the citizens.
@SaveNature701
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
The nature will eventually turn against us and nothing will remain, end game. We are just "another race" in the game that will end. Game over.
Start over.
Cycle repeats.
@secondthought2320
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
They steal electricity.
@wezzyuwezzuy9338
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Sellout the city to temporary workers soon it will become a dead town like all those Gold rush towns in British Columbia.
@wezzyuwezzuy9338
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Hello this is Google, we are under the water please help us!
@kathypichey4306
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
They pollute the water the land they are evil
@BrewskiSucks
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
This is not new. I grew up in Eugene in the 90's. When Hynix came to town, it was supposed to create so many jobs! Then 10 years later after the tax exemptions expired, they pulled up and left. All those jobs were now unemployed, so what was the point? And the land was now unusable due to an empty building that nobody wanted to rent because it was specialized. I had a neighbor back in 2009 who was recently laid-off after they left, and kinda bitter, he shared a lot with me about it.
@37Dionysos
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
All this to help the STEALING, FRAUD and LIES at the core of A. I. They steal people's faces, voices, identities and authority to put false or misleading words in their mouths (look at YouTube!). WHO ASKED FOR THIS? Who asked for fraud except those with an interest in a wholly DEMORALIZED population?
@harleyquinnn9228
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
DATA CENTERS ARE EVIL WHO HARM HUMANS!!!!!!!
@Oblivion__Approaches
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Why struggling cities actively court data centers
These benefits are the ones that matter most to cities with declining tax bases, aging infrastructure, or abandoned industrial land.
🏗 1. They convert dead land into high‑value taxable property
Data centers take:
empty warehouses
abandoned factories
contaminated industrial parcels
unused farmland
…and turn them into hundreds of millions of dollars of taxable infrastructure (servers, buildings, substations, fiber). Even with tax incentives, the long‑term assessed value is enormous.
For a city with collapsing property tax revenue, this is a lifeline.
⚡ 2. They force upgrades to power, fiber, and roads
A hyperscale data center requires:
new substations
high‑capacity transmission lines
multi‑path fiber
improved roads for construction and maintenance
These upgrades are often funded by the operator or through state-level infrastructure programs. The city gets modern utilities it could never afford on its own, which then attract other businesses.
💼 3. They create stable, high-wage technical jobs
Data centers don’t create thousands of jobs, but the jobs they do create are:
high‑skill
high‑pay
long‑term
resistant to offshoring
Plus, they generate indirect jobs in:
security
construction
electrical contracting
HVAC
local services
For a city with declining manufacturing, this is a meaningful shift.
🧲 4. They anchor a tech ecosystem
Once a city lands one hyperscale facility, others follow because:
fiber routes are already built
power capacity is already expanded
zoning is already favorable
This creates a cluster effect, turning a stagnant region into a digital‑infrastructure hub.
Examples include:
Ashburn, VA (from farmland to “Data Center Alley”)
Prineville, OR (Facebook → Apple → more)
Council Bluffs, IA (Google anchor → regional tech growth)
🧱 5. They are politically low-risk
Unlike factories:
they don’t pollute
they don’t bring noise or traffic
they don’t require huge workforce housing
they don’t leave toxic waste if they shut down
For mayors and city councils, this is an easy win.
@user-tg2he6nh8b
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
🤔😔💙🙏
@josevicenteblancocredes2414
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Is the same trick that they pull when they built the stadiums.
@TheHobbyHeatwithMatt
March 4, 2026 at 9:41 am
Facts are once a data Center is built they have no use for all the labor they needed to build and get it up and running. Thus the creation of jobs is very very temporary. Second every county that Zuckerberg and Musk have built them in so far, the EPA is constantly having to make statements that all is safe despite the fact that people who living close are getting sick as its making the drinking water in these counties toxic. The air is polluted and you know all that green new agenda that Musk and Zuckerberg and gates all want to save the planet…well that is really just to make you use less power/natural resources so they can use more!
Comments are closed.