"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
Thing about these ol farmers with all this acreage: they like living in their land away from others. They already have plenty of money. They don't like tech companies. They don't give a fuck about having more money than what they have. It isn't worth the trouble of moving or giving up their land.
This feels like how I play city builders.
Just slap infrastructure wherever you want, screw food production, the populous will either figure it out or I’ll scramble later to save them from starving. Maybe.
"Some people don't value money as much as we do and instead find value in things beyond our comprehension. We are trully shocked by this discovery." - AI CEOs and investors.
They probably aren't offering all that much money, current prices aside, property could be worth a lot more. I imagine they are trying to lowball these farmers, and will try to get the government to use eminent domain to get it even cheaper, and as a threat to force them to sell cheap.
The Guardian article about it mentioned that the farmers that refused the offers were indeed threatened and told that they would invoke eminent domain and have their lands seized in the end anyways
My family has a ~7 acre tract in a rural area. Some random shell company keeps offering more and more even tho it isn't for sale. Their last offer was over 5X the overall state average and probably 20X what it is actually worth (no utilities, has to be hiked to, 90% rocks so not useful for farming). Local rumors say they are planning to build data centers in that area; So I suspect that's why.
Don't sell. Good luck. The land is worth more than current prices, without that land we are at the mercy of owners to rent from us too. Nothing is more important than owning land in the future here I'm afraid. But you need to pay property taxes too, and need vehicles to get into town from the country as well. (I'm trying to become a farmer of sorts right now, 10 acres.)
Absolutely wouldn't sell. It's pretty much an heirloom at this point. And who knows, one day I might want to build a cozy little cabin out amongst the data centers.
Speaking of little cabins, there is this aussie kid, a young man, does these videos called Primitive Technology, somewhere out there in the bush. It is really cool. He shows how to make cement from wood ash and conglomerate like broken pottery, makes bricks, little huts, the entire thing from scratch. I am trying to do a bunch of that stuff too. Am making a cellar of sorts to keep stuff from freezing, just need lumber to frame in doors for that part. I use sheet metal for roofs on structures though, this kid does it all like old school.
Oh yeah, he is one of the first youtubers that I felt compelled to support. "Hey, these are neat videos... Holy crap, that dood is putting in WORK!"
Once you build the cabin, you gotta have a needlepoint put up that is of a datacenter on fire to make the cabin extra cozy!
Is $33m for 650 acres really lowballing?
Depends on the state. Idaho? No. California? Yeah.
Idk, roughly 50k an acre, seems like a lot when added all up. Property is significantly less here that's for sure.
If they are offering that it's probably worth more. Plus though you just don't want those parasites to be in the area, using all the water, polluting, using all of our data to try to enslave us.
Never thought I'd see Libertarians learn not everything has a cash value. Some things are priceless.
No one said that they have learned a lesson. For now, they have only received it.
What we need: Food, Nature.
What we don't need: Datacenters, AI.
Techbros simply dont view us as humans, its quite obvious when you observe them for a bit.
https://youtube.com/shorts/0NkYxjE23JA
Interviewer: "You would prefer the human race to endure, right?"
Pieter Thiel: "Uh." "I don't know..."
Yeah, he has about the same view towards humanity as Agent Smith.
They and billionaires are so detached from reality. They benefit from the fruits of society and are purposely making it worse just so they can accumulate more. They're going to be the architects of their own downfall and will blame US for it instead of looking inward.
Easy for them to look at us as if we're just things that can be bought and sold. Many of us play the part. We need to stop cooperating with them.
hell yeah, fair play to people for holding out! 🙌 it can't be easy when farmers are getting compensated less and less for their labour, even though we don't get food or clothes without farmers.
Eighty-six-year-old Mervin Raudabaugh, Jr., found a creative solution to end the pressure to sell two contiguous farms. He reportedly staved off developers by turning to “a farmland preservation program dedicating taxpayer dollars toward protecting agricultural resources.”
here's hoping more people can do things like this to get data centre builders to back off! 🤞
Lost me at tax payer dollars. I heard fucker was rich now I learn he used government funds to do this. Also that means the government could revoke that and take it away. I would not doubt if they truly wanted a one million dollar bribe to a certain orange man and it will be theres for less then they just offered.
the idea of small mom and pop family farms is pretty much dead, all the serious onss are multi-millionaires abusing the system just as much if not more than the worst techbros/wallstreet/banks.
they got a fantastic PR team though, pretending they struggle. they get paid out of our tax $ to grow food that noone will ever eat, to prop up/game the various crop futures markets. have for decades
In the Land of the "Free" the freedom-protecting government will just take the land under eminent domain, a law that exists already to ensure Americans are the "Free-est" people on the planet.
If I ever get a piece of land somewhere, I will transform it in a natural reserve and live nearby or inside it.
I've long wanted to do that. But I can't find a job in places where I can let my land grow wild.
Farmers are already millionaires and they get to live on a farm. Win win.
Data center buys their farm and they gotta move into a town like all the poors.
Having land worth a million now is different from making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year profit.
Farmers are already millionaires
Is that really what you think
It's not that crazy when you see the cost of farm equipment, you own a decent sized tractor and you're a good way to $1,000,000 in assets already, add on a truck or two, general equipment around the farm, a few buildings and you could easily crest a million in assets. I would be surprised if there are that many private farmers with a million in liquid capital though, and realistically most farmers aren't going to be rich.
Where do you think they got the money to buy the assets? Loans have to be paid back
Quite a few of the farmers I've met purchase outright and claim depreciation via their taxes and avoid the interest, but I would assume many finance as well.
The majority inherit their land.
They’re rich in assets. Land and equipment is valuable. There are lots of farms that don’t make a cent while others are insanely well off. The well off farms get government subsidies just like the poor farmers.
Almost all subsidies go to the big corporations that have bought up these independant farmers and often rented them the land back sharecropping them in effect. John Oliver did a thing on subsidies on one of his shows, I've read things elsewhere too, it's all gamed by the big gateholding corporations that have been squeezing everyone else, especially the landowning farmers, to get their land.
Where did the money for the farm equipment come from? Likely debt, often still being paid.
If wealthy farmers were common, we'd have a lot more farmers
The wealth comes from the fact that there’s a lot less farmers than there used to be. Every failed farm means more land for whoever snatches up that land.
The poor family farms will be gobbled up by rich farmers or corporations. Consolidation of farms is just like all the other consolidation in our economy.
Loans and debt are how nearly every business operates.
Asset rich, cash poor. It has its advantages over being regular poor with no assets but except for the largest farmers, they aren’t living a life of luxury. At least at the size where they are still considered a family farm and not a corporate farm
I guess that was really my point - farmers aren't living a millionaire life, they're just responsible for a million dollars in equipment.
At $10´000 per acre a small 100 acer farm is already that much and we haven't even bought a tractor of a house.
If I get a mortgage on a million dollar house, my net worth is not a million dollars
It is in 30 years when the loan is paid off. Small farms commonly have been in the famaily for 100 years so the farmer is worth a million making $50k or some such.
No shit?
You know a great place to put a Data center?
On parking level 4 in a mixed-use building.
Whatever; just, if you're carving out that footprint, put some people residential, commercial, and professional space in the same footprint. We just don't have the space for this fucking sprawl.
