“Privacy is dead,” is a common mantra used by proponents of the surveillance state to drive home the message that resistance is futile. In fact, many have completely acquiesced to the idea of a privacy-free world. Privacy is in many ways intangible, after all. If one is not paying attention to it or aware of it, it is easy to behave as though these infringements don’t really exist.
There is another aspect of the surveillance state, however, that might not be so easy to ignore—the family budget. A good example of how government surveillance impacts citizens beyond violations of privacy is to consider the state that contains the most surveilled city in the US, Atlanta, Georgia.
Georgia residents will be seeing increased costs on their electricity bills as rates are projected to go up yet again effective January 1, 2025. In Georgia, the Public Service Commission has permitted Georgia Power to raise rates half a dozen times since 2023, one rate hike being as high as 12%. These higher rates are deemed necessary in order to fund costs associated with the completion of two nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, meet rising fuel prices, and cover other expenses driven by increasing demand for energy.
As residential customers struggle to meet their household budgets in an economy rife with inflation, Georgia Power advises them to address this issue with austerity measures. This might seem counterintuitive to some coming on the heels of the commencement of operations of nuclear reactors three and four. The Plant Vogtle project was, after all, the promised panacea that would provide Georgians with reasonably-priced, plentiful energy for “generations to come.”
Consider these two things. First, the use of AI is a huge suck on energy. Second, the collection, storage, and analysis that is employed by government surveillance is driven by AI. While the Georgia General Assembly is poised to enact restrictions on the personal use of AI, they are reluctant to impose limitations on government use of it.
Now consider that the surveillance state has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years. Although some cameras and sensors might employ solar panels to capture the data, huge quantities of energy are still needed for the massive numbers of servers required to store it and the AI needed to analyze it.
This not only impacts electricity rates that then spike in order to meet the infrastructure needs of increasing demand, it also affects the taxpayer as more and more tax dollars are being spent to operate the surveillance in their communities. It is a mathematical reality that either taxes must be increased to pay for it or that existing tax revenue be shifted away from other services. While grants are available from federal programs, universities, and utility companies to install the surveillance infrastructure, maintenance of the systems are generally left to the municipality.
While human rights and privacy are of utmost importance, concerns over surveillance expand beyond this primary issue. In this case, even those who assert, “if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about” indeed have something to worry about.
If the proliferation of surveillance in our cities and towns and roadways is an issue that is important to you, consider exploring Banish Big Brother, an organization that is dedicated to the preservation of individual privacy as a human right. The Libertarian Party of Georgia works in conjunction with this organization to create projects and programs to protect the citizens of our state. For more information on surveillance in our cities, check out the documentary Smart: Coming to a City Near You.