Some years ago, I got into a conversation about the role of billionaires in creating a fair and just world because none of our billionaires will take their wealth to the grave. What inspired the conversation was the millions of dollars in tax subsidies that are frequently given to billionaire investors for large-scale projects that often don’t return the number of jobs they promised.
In the middle of the debate, I was asked what we should do with billionaires. I said then that the goal in pushing for an equitable and ethical economy is not to wipe away billionaires, but to have a real conversation with the ultra-wealthy business class about meaningful and healthy economic concessions they can make to uplift the living conditions of people in the same communities where they are making their wealth.
In other words, there should be community benefits agreements tailored so that the winner and the deepest pocket don’t walk away with everything. Rather, we must insist at the negotiating table that routinely overlooked and abandoned communities are economically empowered.
That is an economy that works for all.
That model can be applied to the current debate about the place of data centers.
Let’s be honest. Data centers are critical to the emerging digital economy and the place and future of artificial intelligence in this dispensation. We cannot avoid that reality, and the fact that technology is moving at a rapid pace, which is changing nearly every facet of our lives.
The demand for energy, land use, construction projects and the need for transparency are all issues that have been raised in the ongoing scrutiny surrounding data centers.
But many of these concerns, rooted in the history of structural economic inequality and the sometimes lack of democratic accountability measures on other major public or private partnership projects in the past, can be addressed through community benefits agreements that are anchored on equitable, credible and measurable outcomes that will accelerate positive impact and economic growth in neglected communities.
The economic incentives, including employment opportunities in the IT industry with competitive wages that data centers promise, can’t come to fruition with a top-down approach to pushing these centers down communities’ throats.
The key should be to ensure that data centers are properly structured, designed and governed in a way that does not increase inequality, but rather helps close the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in places like Detroit and the surrounding region.
That means minority-owned companies and local businesses should be part of the procurement processes when contracts for data centers are given out. The land deals that have become a flashpoint in the debate about data centers should benefit residents — not simply make them the victims of gentrification.
Much of this can be achieved if corporations embarking on the construction of data centers, and the members of the skeptical communities in which they are supposed to be built, have a clear-eyed goal to work towards a partnership that ensures economic justice.
Opposing data centers to simply garner headlines does no good. Part of the focus should be on making sure there are serious hiring commitments as well as investment in the digital skills of our young people.
Whether we like it or not, data centers are here to stay because they are considered the backbone of the digital economy. We need to be prepared to have the equitable conversations with the captains of industry that would lead to a solution that guarantees the well-being of communities.
More importantly, we must ensure that neglected communities can be centers of innovation and opportunity.
Because AI is here.
Bankole Thompson’s columns appear on Mondays and Thursdays in The Detroit News.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Thompson: Rethinking data centers as a model for economic justice
Reporting by Bankole Thompson / The Detroit News
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