Eight-hundred million bucks.
That’s the investment that “Meta” — the umbrella outfit that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — has agreed to invest in a patch of land in Kansas City’s Northland. The plan is to build a data center at an 882-acred development site.
“Political leaders who gathered at Union Station heralded the news as a major development for Kansas City and the state.” This private investment “would far surpass the scale of recent projects in the region . . . said Missouri Gov. Mike Parson,” The Kansas City Star relates.
But there’s more.
“Meta spokeswoman Melanie Roe said the company could invest as much as $40 billion at the site in land acquisition, construction, and development of a larger data center.” This is to be a “long term partnership.”
Make that a Big Business/Big Government partnership. The biggest ever, perhaps.
The Kansas City Council had unanimously approved a development plan for the site last April, with data centers there enabled to access to more than $8 billion in local tax incentives. “Incentive watchdog group Good Jobs First says such an incentive award would be the largest ever in American history,” The Kansas City Star explains.
Take it as a word of caution. This is not laissez faire capitalism. This is not “the free market.” It is favoritism. It unites big business and big government.
And even as an investment in future taxes — which is the ostensible justification for the subsidies — the data complex is slated to employ about a hundred workers.
Politicians don’t make the best investors. But they do make easy marks for big corporations.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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1 reply on “Up-to-Date in Kansas City?”
Didn’t they used to call this fascism?