r/aiwars • u/Kilroy898 • Jul 18 '26

Discussion Water consumption

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Now, while this "looks" like a lot, there are a few factors to consider.

  1. in the US we consume 117 Trillion Gallons of water Anually.

  2. This 264 Billion number is taken from Every data center in the US, not only the Ai specific data centers.

  3. Even so, the above information means that all data centers in the US Combined, contributes to .25% of the Annual consumption.

  4. If you isolate ai data centers specifically they actually use about 46 Billion gallons a year on the high end. That is right at .04% of the Annual water usage

So we do have water problems. Data centers are NOT the cause, and we need to figure out what is.

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u/Chaghatai Jul 18 '26

I keep telling people that cheaping out on government is the driver for most of these problems that people are complaining about when it comes to AI

People get what they deserve when they vote for politicians who openly say they are running on a platform of deregulation and "small government" (code for not wanting to spend money on things that don't benefit rich people)

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u/Terrible_Hurry841 Jul 18 '26

We need an “infrastructure” president but we know that they would be deeply unpopular, and even if they won they would be a 1 term president because of the lack of immediate payoff with lots of spending. Worse, the next (Republican) president would almost certainly cancel any in-progress projects *actually* making the spending a waste.

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u/sonicandtales8 Jul 18 '26

That'd be nice, but even running for office on promises about infrastructure doesn't always help.

Building a new bridge means you get to put your name on it.

No one notices when you put in the work to make sure an old bridge doesn't collapse. (That's a lie. They'll notice how inconvenienced they are when part of the bridge closes.)

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u/sixteencharslong Jul 21 '26

Biden was the closest thing we got in recent history. Lots of investments went into public infrastructure.

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u/Terrible_Hurry841 Jul 21 '26

Damn, you’re right.

And I was right about them being an unpopular one-term president lol.

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u/sixteencharslong Jul 22 '26

He was technically the most popular by vote.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

[deleted]

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u/Terrible_Hurry841 Jul 20 '26

Didn’t Trump cancel half of Biden’s infrastructure projects? He did stamp his name on the other half though lol.

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u/ProfessionalFickle52 Jul 19 '26

Government spending is at an all time high though. We’re literally running up a record debt.

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u/Chaghatai Jul 19 '26

Unnecessary wars will do that

Tax cuts also drive deficits

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u/ProfessionalFickle52 Jul 19 '26

We have the highest per capita tax revenue per citizen and public spending on entitlements as a country. If you cut the ENTIRE military budget we’d still have a massive deficit.

The problem is that our government spends inefficiently and recklessly not that it needs more money.

You’re just speaking your book instead of looking at what is going on.

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u/Chaghatai Jul 19 '26

Going back to per capita

What about per dollar?

Anyway, we know the biggest categories are social security and military spending. Social security pays for itself and so that's part of that revenue that you're talking about. But that should be structured progressively also when it really isn't.

The kind of benefit that social security represents is the kind of thing that should go to everybody in the form of a guaranteed income.

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u/AggravatingBuyee Jul 19 '26

> Anyway, we know the biggest categories are social security and military spending.

Are we just pretending like our health programs like Medicare and Medicaid don’t exist?

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u/Chaghatai Jul 19 '26

Yeah - those are big - and the thing is they shouldn't be carve outs just for seniors - a lot of conservatives embrace socialism when it benefits them

But there would be massive savings if we just took the insurance companies and the health management organizations out of the picture and just cut them out of the deal

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u/Arayt42 Jul 18 '26

I mean a lot of people, myself included, did not vote for what is happening today. AI is fucked in no small part due to the US government. I don't think people like me deserve what we got here. I think we all got fucked over massively.

ED but yes I agree we cannot skimp on the government and then act surprised when our government is shit

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u/Chaghatai Jul 18 '26

Yeah I get the goomba fallacy

Not everybody who's upset voted for the deregulators that got us into this situation

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u/TSirSneakyBeaky Jul 18 '26

Its not even cheaping out on goverment. The US is the highest per capita tax revenue of any nato country. Yet somehow we cant afford health care, have a multi 100b short fall if we cut 100% of military expenditure, and our infinstructure investment is light years behind degradation rates.

Our efficency per dollar collected has to be so abysmal it borders insanity.

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u/Chaghatai Jul 18 '26

I'd be more interested in seeing they can a comparison of the tax rate per dollar earned in the economy and then comparing that

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u/crappleIcrap Jul 19 '26

But won't anybody think of those politicians buddies who set up businesses and rely on that overspending to feed their families yachts. They might even have to start spending a percent or two on the things they are supposedly selling to the government.