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Comment by CharlieDigital | Hacker News Reader

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CharlieDigital·

NIMBY is stopping data centers.

Maine set to become first state with data center ban: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/09/maine-data-center-ban.html

Also, it's a different kind of more insidious and visceral NIMBY rooted in racism and classism.

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It's facetious to pretend NIMBYs are as such because they're racist and classist, rather than because they just want to protect the single most valuable and future-determining investment they'll make in their entire lives.

Those factors are tied together and aren’t easily separable. The racism and classism comes in because they believe that people of a different race or class will diminish the value of their investment.

If enough people believe this then it is true. That's just how markets work.

It is how (unregulated) markets work, but is this the right outcome? What do you think would happen if this were allowed to play out to its logical extent?

Desirable things become expensive and undesirable things become inexpensive.

Not sure it's a bad thing. So, they would employ maybe 30 people after they're built. Consume a lot of power and water. I'd have to see the details of a specific proposal but I'd probably vote against personally.

Yes, see the famous essay, Nimby Good When My Neighborhood by I Hyppocrit.

Sure, it’s stopping some, but not most/all even with strong public opposition.

See: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/small-missouri-to...

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