How Your City Can Keep Factory Jobs—And Get Paid to Host the Infrastructure That Saves Them
- the Institute
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
Network Theory Applied Research Institute November 2025
In 1913, Henry Ford's assembly line made workers more productive—but Ford captured all the gains as profit. By 1927, factory productivity had quintupled, but workers' wages barely moved. The machinery belonged to Ford, so Ford decided what to do with the productivity it created.
Today, manufacturing faces elimination of 2 million jobs by 2027 as AI and robotics automate production. The trajectory looks identical to Ford's era: technology increases productivity, corporations own the technology, corporations capture the gains, workers lose employment.
But there's a critical difference this time. The computing infrastructure that makes AI automation possible doesn't require billion-dollar factories owned by corporations. Modern automation runs on distributed edge computing—small devices installed throughout communities, processing data locally instead of sending it to distant corporate data centers.
This changes everything about who can own automation infrastructure.
Your city can build edge computing networks the same way it built water systems, roads, and broadband—as public infrastructure that businesses use but communities control. When General Electric uses municipal water infrastructure, Louisville owns the pipes and charges usage fees. When GE wants to use municipal edge computing infrastructure for factory automation, the same principle applies: Louisville owns the computing nodes, residents host them in homes and businesses for monthly stipends, GE pays infrastructure access fees, and productivity gains circulate locally instead of flowing to distant shareholders.
This isn't hypothetical. Municipal broadband networks return 50-80x higher ROI than traditional corporate subsidies. Chattanooga's $300M fiber investment generated $2.69B in economic impact—value captured locally instead of paid to corporate ISPs. Edge computing for manufacturing follows the same model: public infrastructure that prevents extraction and keeps value circulating in the community.
Here's what this means for Louisville, Detroit, Birmingham, or any municipality with significant factory employment: You can build computing infrastructure that preserves manufacturing jobs, increases workers' wages, and pays residents monthly stipends for hosting equipment—or you can watch corporations automate away employment while extracting productivity gains to distant shareholders.
The choice is being made right now, in 2025, through decisions about who builds automation infrastructure.
The Automation Threat Is Immediate
The numbers are stark: 1.9 million US jobs affected by AI automation by early 2025. Manufacturing projected to lose 2 million jobs by 2027, with assembly line employment declining from 2.1 million in 2024 to 1.0 million by 2030. 76,440 positions were eliminated due to AI in 2025 alone—427 layoffs per day.
This isn't speculation about a distant future. This is happening now, in Louisville factories, Detroit plants, Birmingham facilities. Electric vehicles require 30% fewer parts than combustion engines, making assembly simpler and more automatable. Quality control systems running on corporate AI achieve 99%+ accuracy, making human inspectors statistically redundant. Predictive maintenance algorithms forecast equipment failures, reducing need for maintenance crews.
When corporations own the automation infrastructure—whether it's cloud computing in distant data centers or edge computing installed locally—they capture 100% of productivity gains. Workers who generated that productivity through decades of labor see nothing. They're simply eliminated once algorithms replicate their tasks efficiently enough.
Your community faces a choice: accept this trajectory and watch factory employment vanish, or build alternative infrastructure where automation serves workers instead of replacing them.
Why Municipal Ownership Changes Everything
The difference between corporate automation and municipal automation isn't where computers process data—it's who owns the infrastructure and who benefits from productivity gains.
Corporate Automation (the current default):
Corporation owns computing infrastructure (cloud or edge)
Corporation captures 100% of productivity gains
Workers eliminated when automation replicates their tasks
Savings flow to distant shareholders
Community loses jobs, wages, tax revenue, local spending
Municipal Edge Computing:
City owns computing infrastructure as public utility
Workers and city co-govern automation systems
Productivity gains shared: 40% to workers (wages/profit-sharing), 30% to facility improvements, 20% to reserves, 10% to infrastructure fund
Workers augmented by AI instead of replaced
Community retains jobs at higher pay + infrastructure revenue
Same AI capabilities. Same productivity increases. Completely different outcomes based on ownership structure.
What Municipal Edge Computing Means for You
Here's what this actually looks like in your community:
For Factory Workers
Instead of quality control inspectors eliminated by computer vision AI, they supervise AI systems processing 10x more parts while making final decisions on edge cases. Instead of one person inspecting 100 units daily, one person supervises AI inspection of 1,000 units daily—with AI assistance, not replacement.
Productivity quintiples. In corporate model, four inspectors lose jobs and one remains at same wage. In municipal cooperative model, all five inspectors keep jobs with AI augmentation, facility processes 5x more units, workers receive profit-sharing from productivity gains. Annual compensation increases from $60K to $105K ($60K base + $45K profit share).
The facility remains competitive through productivity. Workers earn more through gain-sharing. Community retains five manufacturing jobs instead of losing four.
For Residents Who Host Infrastructure
Louisville deploys 5,000 edge computing nodes across the municipality. 3,000 install at businesses and public facilities. 2,000 install at participating residential properties—homeowners who volunteer to host equipment.
What hosting involves:
City provides equipment (device roughly the size of desktop computer, $2,000-3,000 value)
Resident provides: space (basement, utility room, garage), electrical outlet, internet connection
City handles: installation, maintenance, monitoring, insurance, repairs
What hosting pays:
$50/month stipend ($600 annually) for providing space and power
Zero capital investment required
Equipment remains city property
No technical expertise needed
Over 7-year deployment period: $4,200 per household in infrastructure hosting payments. For 2,000 participating households: $8.4 million circulating locally as infrastructure stipends.
This parallels how rural electric cooperatives compensated members for hosting electrical infrastructure—creating distributed ownership while generating local income.
For Small Business Owners
Local manufacturers access municipal edge computing at cost-plus-thin-margin pricing instead of paying corporate cloud fees. A parts manufacturer currently spending $120K annually on AWS edge computing services pays $18K annually for equivalent municipal infrastructure ($150/month × 10 edge nodes).
Annual savings: $102K. That savings stays in Louisville instead of flowing to Amazon. Multiply across 100 local manufacturers: $10M annually retained locally instead of extracted to corporate clouds.
Additionally, small manufacturers using municipal infrastructure gain access to open-source software developed collaboratively by the network—free quality control systems, predictive maintenance, scheduling optimization that would cost $50K-500K if purchased from corporations.
For the Broader Community
When factory workers earn $105K instead of losing jobs entirely, that's $105K per worker circulating locally—spent at local businesses, generating sales tax revenue, supporting community economic activity.
When 2,000 households receive $600 annual infrastructure hosting stipends, that's $1.2M circulating in residential neighborhoods annually.
When 100 local manufacturers save $102K annually on infrastructure costs, that's $10M retained for wages, expansion, and local investment instead of extracted to AWS.
Total community value retention: $23M annually in a mid-size municipality (conservative estimate based on Louisville feasibility analysis). This compounds—$23M annually × 7 years = $161M total value captured locally instead of extracted to distant corporations.
Why Edge Computing Makes Municipal Ownership Possible
Cities can't build competing AWS data centers. A single AWS facility costs $1-3 billion and requires expertise municipalities don't have. When automation requires centralized data centers, communities have no path to ownership—they either accept corporate infrastructure or have no automation at all.
Edge computing changes this equation. Instead of one massive facility, edge computing distributes processing across many small nodes—devices roughly the size of desktop computers, costing $2,000-3,000 each, that install throughout the municipality.
The Infrastructure Model:
Municipal Anchor Nodes: Rack-mounted servers at libraries, community centers, schools, municipal buildings. Connected via municipal fiber. Cost: $8,000-12,000 per installation. Distribution: 1 per 5,000 residents.
Business/Factory Edge Nodes: Deployed at participating facilities. Specifications: 8-16 core CPUs, 32-64GB RAM, 2-4TB storage. Cost: $2,000-3,000 per unit. Revenue: $150/month infrastructure access fee covers operating costs + thin surplus.
Residential Nodes: Homeowners and small businesses can host nodes for $50/month stipends.
Louisville deploying 5,000 edge nodes costs $10-15M—comparable to a municipal broadband buildout, not a billion-dollar data center. The distributed architecture makes municipal ownership financially realistic for cities over 50,000 population.
This parallels municipal water systems: cities don't compete with Coca-Cola's global beverage network, they provide water infrastructure that local businesses use. Edge computing works the same way—cities provide computing substrate that local manufacturers use for automation at cost-plus-thin-margin pricing.
Financing Options:
Federal broadband programs (NTIA BEAD's $42.5B) prioritize cooperative models
State economic development funds support infrastructure with job retention requirements
Municipal bonds offer 20-30 year terms at favorable rates
Infrastructure access fees create revenue stream that pays for itself
Chattanooga's experience proves the model—$300M investment generated $2.69B economic impact, nearly 9x ROI. Municipal edge computing follows identical logic: local infrastructure investment returns value orders of magnitude higher than traditional economic development spending.
How Your City Should Build This
Municipal leaders and economic development officials: your cities compete for factories and jobs by offering tax abatements to corporations that increasingly automate away the employment they promise. Every data center you subsidize costs $1.4-6.4 million per permanent job created—and those jobs vanish when automation makes them redundant.
Municipal edge computing offers different strategy: compete by providing superior public infrastructure that manufacturers use to increase productivity while retaining jobs.
1. Build Municipal Edge Computing as Public Utility
Deploy edge computing nodes at public facilities—libraries, community centers, schools, municipal buildings. Offer local businesses and factories access at cost-plus-thin-margin pricing. Structure as public utility with transparent governance.
Implementation Timeline:
Year 1: Feasibility study, secure funding ($3-5M from federal grants + municipal bonds), deploy 50-100 pilot nodes
Year 2-3: Scale to 1,000-2,000 nodes, establish operations, recruit residential hosts
Year 4-5: Reach 5,000 nodes, achieve break-even, begin generating surplus for reinvestment
2. Condition Economic Development Incentives on Municipal Infrastructure Use
Make adoption of municipal edge computing mandatory for any tax abatements or subsidies.
Policy Template:
"Any manufacturer receiving tax incentives or economic development support from [City] must process automation systems on [City] Municipal Edge Computing Network. Companies must maintain baseline employment levels for [5 years] following automation deployment and share productivity gains with workers through contractual formulas. Violations result in repayment of incentives with interest."
This flips traditional economic development: instead of lowest taxes, offer best infrastructure that keeps jobs local.
3. Recruit Residential Infrastructure Hosts
Launch public campaign recruiting homeowners to host edge computing nodes for $50/month stipends.
Recruitment Message:
"Help Louisville keep factory jobs while earning $600 annually. Host a city-owned edge computing device in your home—we provide equipment, installation, maintenance, and insurance. You provide space and electrical outlet. Join 2,000 Louisville residents building infrastructure that prevents job losses to corporate automation."
Target: homeowners with basement/utility room/garage space, stable internet, interest in civic participation and supplemental income.
4. Partner with Local Unions
Formal partnership between city economic development and labor unions representing manufacturing workers creates political coalition supporting infrastructure investment.
Partnership Structure:
Joint labor-municipal infrastructure committee
Shared advocacy for state/federal funding
Union political support for infrastructure bonds
Job retention requirements tied to infrastructure access
5. Coordinate with Neighboring Municipalities
Regional edge computing networks serving multiple cities achieve economies of scale and create network effects that proprietary alternatives can't match.
Regional Benefits:
Bulk purchasing reduces equipment costs
Shared network operations center serves region at lower per-city cost
Coordinated economic development prevents race-to-bottom competition
Stronger voice advocating for state/federal policy support
The Timeline: Act Now or Accept Job Losses
2025-2026: Window for Action
Right now, automation infrastructure decisions are being made. Corporations are deploying systems. Every month without municipal alternatives allows corporate systems to become more entrenched.
Build municipal infrastructure in 2025-2026, and you capture value locally for 30 years. Wait until 2028-2030, and corporate systems achieve market dominance that makes alternatives impossible—resulting in mass unemployment and community decline.
The Trajectory Without Municipal Action:
2025-2027: Corporations deploy proprietary automation, eliminate 500K manufacturing positions
2028-2030: Corporate systems achieve network effects, communities wanting alternatives face "but everyone else uses corporate systems" barrier
2031-2035: Automation infrastructure fully entrenched, switching costs prohibitive, 30% of manufacturing employment eliminated
2036+: Regulatory response emerges after mass unemployment, but regulations formalize corporate extraction rather than preventing it
The Trajectory With Municipal Infrastructure:
2025-2027: 5-10 municipalities deploy edge networks, prove financial viability, release open-source software
2028-2030: 50+ municipalities adopt proven models, document job retention vs. corporate-dominated areas
2031-2035: 200+ municipalities operating edge infrastructure, community ownership becomes competitive standard
2036+: Federal policy supports community ownership after municipal success demonstrates superior outcomes
The infrastructure being deployed in 2025-2026 determines which future occurs. Every month matters.
What You Can Do Right Now
For Factory Workers
Talk to your union representatives about demanding municipal infrastructure in contract negotiations
Attend city council meetings when infrastructure investment appears on agendas
Vote for candidates supporting community ownership of automation infrastructure
Connect with workers at other facilities facing similar automation threats
For Residents
Sign up to host edge computing infrastructure for $50/month stipends when your city launches recruitment
Contact city council members expressing support for municipal edge computing investment
Vote for infrastructure bonds supporting edge computing deployment
Share information about community benefits with neighbors
For Small Business Owners
Contact your city's economic development office expressing interest in municipal edge computing services
Attend public hearings on economic development policy supporting community infrastructure
Join business coalitions advocating for municipal alternatives to corporate cloud services
Calculate potential savings from municipal infrastructure vs. current corporate cloud costs
For City Officials and Community Leaders
Commission feasibility study for municipal edge computing using NTARI's Louisville analysis as template. Connect with municipalities already deploying edge networks. Identify federal/state funding opportunities. Form joint labor-municipal infrastructure committee. Draft economic development policy requiring community ownership for incentives.
For implementation guidance, technical assistance, and connection to municipalities already deploying edge computing networks, contact NTARI at info@ntari.org or join discussions in our Slack workspace: https://join.slack.com/t/ntari/shared_invite/zt-39injdzvr-a7jY2FVU00fYPopG7gyP4w
The Choice Is Clear
Assembly lines didn't have to empty when automation arrived—they emptied because Ford owned the machinery and optimized for corporate profit over community wellbeing. The same choice confronts manufacturing today, but with one critical difference: modern automation infrastructure can be publicly owned.
Three possible futures:
Future 1: Corporate Automation Corporations own infrastructure (cloud or edge), capture 100% of productivity gains, eliminate 2 million manufacturing jobs by 2030, extract value to distant shareholders, hollow out communities. This is the default trajectory if communities don't act.
Future 2: Municipal Infrastructure Without Action Cities build edge computing but don't condition economic development incentives on usage, corporations continue using proprietary systems, job losses continue, infrastructure generates revenue but doesn't prevent extraction. Better than Future 1 but misses the opportunity.
Future 3: Community-Owned Automation Cities build edge infrastructure, condition incentives on municipal infrastructure use, workers co-govern automation systems, productivity gains shared through contractual formulas, manufacturing employment stable or growing, wages rising with productivity, value circulates locally. This only happens if communities build deliberately.
The difference between these futures is ownership. Edge computing makes community ownership financially viable (unlike billion-dollar data centers). Community ownership means community benefits—jobs retained, wages increased, residents paid stipends, local businesses saving costs, value circulating instead of extracting.
Your city decides which future occurs through actions taken in 2025-2026. Build municipal infrastructure or accept corporate extraction. The technology exists. The financial models work. The precedents prove viability.
What's missing is political will to act before corporate alternatives become entrenched.
Learn More
Municipal Counter-Automation Strategy:
Municipal Counter-Automation Strategy - Complete strategic framework
The Internet as a Public Utility - Technical analysis of cooperative networks
Municipal Broadband Precedents:
AI Job Displacement Data:
Contact Information:
Network Theory Applied Research Institute, Inc. EIN: 92-3047136 501(c)(3) Public Charity
+1(502)-885-1367
For Municipal Implementation & Partnership Inquiries: info@ntari.org
For Technical Collaboration & Community Discussion: https://join.slack.com/t/ntari/shared_invite/zt-39injdzvr-a7jY2FVU00fYPopG7gyP4w
Support Cooperative Infrastructure Development: https://ntari.org/#give
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