The American labor force is shrinking and increasingly responsible for bankrolling the largest and wealthiest generation to ever age into retirement. And that retirement is becoming increasingly expensive, with the majority of tax dollars collected sent straight to Americans 65 and older.
The United States’s $38 trillion national debt now nets an annual interest bill of another trillion dollars each year. And the bipartisan Washington consensus eschews reforms in favor of praying that the economy magically grows its way out of this fiscal disaster.
And the crazy thing is, the artificial intelligence boom may very well be the deus ex machina capable of bailing out the country. Naturally, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has committed the socialist cause to crusade against it.
The two-time Democratic presidential candidate is not interested in regulating AI or taxing its externalities. Rather, Sanders is now campaigning for a total moratorium on new AI data centers and demanded that the government “slow this thing down” indefinitely.
During a Silicon Valley tour, Sanders confessed that his greatest concern for American national security is not the risk posed by the Chinese Communist Party winning the 21st-century war, of Big Science, the impending insolvency of Social Security and Medicare, or even the usual left-wing bugaboos such as climate change. Rather, Sanders said that capitalizing on the AI revolution — not ceding it to genocidal adversaries — poses the “most dangerous moment in the modern history of this country.”
The rationale for his panic varies. In his latest press release celebrating Denver joining a slew of indigo localities that are torpedoing new data center construction, Sanders cited “the very real environmental impact of data centers” in Colorado and elsewhere. Also, the disproportionate risk to blue-collar jobs, the somewhat equally disproportionate risk to white-collar jobs (yes, I was also confused), and the unacceptable possibility that AI might progress too fast.
Based on similar moral panics among Democratic politicos proposing bans on new data center development from Oregon to Georgia, the Left seems ready to unite to oppose AI because of its extraordinary potential for economic productivity.
This, of course, is the irony.
The only way to achieve economic growth in a country with a shrinking labor force is through an explosive boost to productivity. AI has already shown ample promise in that regard. TD Securities estimates that AI drove 87% of fixed investment growth in 2025.
Furthermore, data centers in particular are a massive boon to both taxation and employment. In Northern Virginia, the national epicenter for data center development, Loudoun County says it receives $26 in tax revenue for every $1 invested, with data center taxes funding a third of the local government. Each new data center requires at least 1,000 workers to construct, then hundreds to maintain. PwC estimates that each data center job supports an average of 6.4 additional jobs in the rest of the economy.
AI, like any other economic revolution, does confer externalities worthy of government scrutiny. Data center demand drives up local energy costs, and President Donald Trump is correct to insist that AI companies are made responsible for footing the bill. Furthermore, local governments have a duty to work with communities to insist that public school systems keep AI away from classrooms for younger students. The same way they should be getting iPads and Chromebooks out of classrooms.
But an all-out crusade against AI, specifically because of its monumental economic potential, is suicidal. Not just because red localities will remain open for business for AI and benefit at the expense of degrowth Democrats. But because maximal AI should benefit all of us.
In response to a market-moving piece of dystopian fan fiction fearmongering about AI, Citadel Securities put out its own brief on the historical precedent for AI’s impact and the improbability that the technology will render humans unemployable any more than the typewriter or the internet did.
PAYROLL JOBS NUMBERS REVISED DOWN BY OVER A MILLION FOR 2025
“Productivity shocks are positive supply shocks: they lower marginal costs, expand potential output, and increase real income,” writes macro strategist Frank Flight. “Historically, every major technological advance: steam power, electrification, the internal combustion engine, computing, has followed this pattern.”
The real question is whether Bernie hates AI because he has deluded himself into believing it will inhibit or unleash human prosperity. If socialists are happy to abandon the ballooning entitlement state in favor of austerity, we can afford to ditch AI. But if we hope to bankroll more retirees and interest bills with fewer workers, there must be more output per worker. For that, AI is really our only and last hope.
Tiana Lowe Doescher (@TianaTheFirst) is an economics columnist for the Washington Examiner.