Comment by Supermancho

Comment by Supermancho 2 days ago

> I don’t want my competition to know where I’m going, what I’m doing, what pace I’m doing it at

This is likely a misdirection. The "competition" is for the water and power, ie the local communities. This is a NIMBY issue with practical consequences. That's how it has been used in one part of North Dakota. Applied Digital is building in a town (~800 ppl) named Harwood after being unhappy with Fargo tax negotiations. The mayor of Harwood abused an existing agreement with Fargo, which will have to meet the water and power needs of everything in Harwood.

JKCalhoun 2 days ago

Is this the tactic of pitting cities against one another in a race-to-the-bottom competition that gives public tax money to corporations?

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Supermancho 2 days ago

Yes. The company surveyed a number of surrounding locales, looking for a favorable situation. Harwood had the existing Fargo infrastructure and the mayor of Harwood was happy to take a payout. I think the company predation was transparent.

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- sneak 2 days ago
  
  How is that predation if the people in that city democratically elected the mayor who made that choice? Isn’t that representative democracy decisionmaking working as intended?
  
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  Supermancho 2 days ago
  
  > How is that predation if the people in that city democratically elected the mayor who made that choice?
  Find a small town politician, bribe them. Corruption pure and simple with no chance for accountability. The economically strong predate on the economically weak.
  
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  kakacik 2 days ago
  
  For such a massive long term impact, people should vote directly. That's ideal, and its pretty realistic ideal especially with 800 votes which are trivial to count.
  If course its not ideal for the company investing. Then the question becomes if rights/wishes of people are above of those of companies. Often, in Europe they are not, and often in US they are, exceptions notwithstanding.
  
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  yccs27 2 days ago
  
  It‘s preying on the city‘s desperation to get a cash payout, to get space and utilities worth much more. Facebook abuses its market power to pit city governments against each other, while the cities don‘t have many alternatives.
  
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  sneak 2 days ago
  
  Does the mayor sell land or electricity now? That’s not how one gets space or utilities.
  
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mistrial9 2 days ago

Hollywood in its heights also uses this kind of opportunistic abuse in siting movies and TV

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