Why West Virginia’s Small Towns Should Keep Big Tech—and CEOs Like Musk—Out
West Virginia’s small towns are the backbone of the state. Built on community values and supported by local businesses, they thrive on connection, tradition, and sustainability. But Big Tech—companies like Amazon, Google, and Elon Musk’s Tesla—are increasingly targeting these towns as untapped opportunities. They promise jobs and economic revitalization, but the reality is far darker. These tech giants don’t build communities; they exploit them, leaving behind inflated housing markets, displacement, and fractured local economies.
Elon Musk: A Poster Child for Exploitation
Elon Musk is often touted as a genius innovator, but his ventures are riddled with controversy, racism, and broken promises. At Tesla’s Fremont factory, Musk was ordered to pay $3.2 million in a racial discrimination lawsuit. The case highlighted rampant racial abuse, including slurs and derogatory drawings, which Musk’s leadership failed to address.
Musk’s SolarCity project in Buffalo, New York, is another glaring failure. Despite receiving $750 million in taxpayer subsidies, the project delivered fewer than half the promised jobs, leaving Buffalo residents holding the bill. Musk’s business model? Sweep into a town, promise economic growth, and then leave once the profits dry up, forcing communities to clean up the mess.
Other Big Tech CEOs: The Same Story in Different Suits
Musk isn’t alone. Other tech titans like Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Sundar Pichai of Google paint a similar picture of economic prosperity that rarely benefits locals. Amazon’s warehouses bring notoriously poor working conditions, low pay, and a flood of transplants, driving up housing prices and displacing long-term residents.
Meanwhile, Microsoft established a data center in Boydton, Virginia, promising jobs and economic growth. But, as with many Big Tech ventures, the job creation was minimal, and the cultural and environmental strain on the town has been significant. Boydton saw little of the economic uplift these companies typically advertise, while the corporation profited.
Big Tech Promises Jobs, But Delivers Displacement
When Big Tech rolls into small towns, they arrive with grand promises of jobs and prosperity. But more often than not, they leave a trail of displacement and rising costs. Look at Austin, Texas, where Musk’s Giga Texas factory led to a 40% spike in housing prices, pricing out long-time residents in favor of well-paid tech workers imported from out of state.
In towns like Fayetteville or Elkins, West Virginia, the same pattern is likely to play out: affordable land attracts tech giants, but the costs—rising rents, displacement, and loss of local culture—are shouldered by the residents. The benefits of Big Tech expansion rarely trickle down to the communities that need it most.
Small Businesses: The True Economic Engines of West Virginia
While Big Tech may claim to create jobs, the reality is that small businesses are the true drivers of economic growth in West Virginia. Nearly 99% of businesses in West Virginia are small businesses, employing over 250,000 people. These businesses reinvest in their communities, fostering sustainable job creation that keeps money circulating locally rather than funneling profits back to Silicon Valley.
Unlike Big Tech’s boom-and-bust model, small businesses grow alongside their communities. They don’t inflate housing prices, they don’t import outside workers at the expense of locals, and they don’t pack up and leave when the profit margins shrink.
Why Big Tech’s Culture Is Toxic
Beyond the economic harm, Big Tech’s toxic culture also presents a major problem. Musk, for example, is infamous for his transphobic tweets (are they still called tweets?), misogynistic behavior, and open hostility toward workers' rights. His leadership style is the antithesis of community-building, and his companies foster environments where discrimination is tolerated and workers are exploited.
Similarly, Amazon has been accused of union-busting, forcing employees into brutal working conditions, and contributing to local displacement wherever it sets up warehouses. Microsoft’s data center in Boydton has also faced criticism for failing to integrate into the local economy in a meaningful way, leaving residents to wonder whether the promised economic benefits were ever real.
Conclusion: Keep West Virginia’s Towns for West Virginians
West Virginia doesn’t need Musk, Bezos, or any other Big Tech CEO to come in and disrupt what makes this state special. The strength of West Virginia lies in its local businesses, its communities, and its natural beauty. Big Tech doesn’t create lasting benefits—they create short-term booms followed by long-term busts.
West Virginia should focus on supporting small businesses, eco-tourism, and sustainable industries. When Big Tech comes knocking with empty promises, the answer should be simple: no thanks. The state deserves better, and that starts by keeping people like Musk and his Big Tech peers out of West Virginia’s small towns.
Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/15/tesla-settles-racial-discrimination-lawsuit.html
https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Small-Business-Economic-Profile-WV.pdf
https://www.investigativepost.org/2023/01/11/teslas-solar-factory-in-buffalo-fizzles/
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/04/05/the-exploitative-origins-of-amazon/
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-data-centers-fail-to-bring-new-jobs-to-small-towns/