The Mountain Xpress called attention to an article in the Washington Post that said huge investments by the government in private-sector technology (a.k.a. corporate welfare) do not create many jobs. The referenced article says the few jobs created by high-tech industry are usually handled in the Silicon Valley. There isn’t much left in this country for blue-collar workers.
Todd Cherry, director of the Center for Economic Research and Policy Analysis at Appalachian State University, said data centers “are more of a political benefit for those communities and politicians than for the community itself. They give the region the psychological benefit of having someone who wants them — somebody wants to come there and locate there.”
The new, billion-dollar Apple facility in Maiden, NC created fifty jobs, but the reporter was unable to find anybody in the close-knit town who worked there. None of the construction jobs appear to have gone to locals. In a search for economic multipliers, the reporter discovered a local hardware store had been visited by an Apple employee for making copies of keys.
