[HN Gopher] Foxconn's Promise to Invest $10B in Wisconsin Is Now...
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Foxconn's Promise to Invest $10B in Wisconsin Is Now a Distant
Memory
Author : bb88
Score : 64 points
Date : 2023-09-03 21:54 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.engadget.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.engadget.com)
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| Reminds me of the American Plant Foods deal in Louisiana.
|
| They promised 100+ jobs at $120K+ a year salaried.
|
| What they actually came up with was 13 jobs at $56K a year.
|
| For this, they're getting a $47M tax break. If you want to know
| why Louisiana is consistently one of the most poorly educated and
| poorly funded states in the country, it's situations like this.
| The locals end up subsidizing out of state businesses who get
| sweetheart deals with local politicians in exchange for favors.
| ninth_ant wrote:
| Tax subsidies like you describe here don't just hurt the state
| being taken advantage of, it hurts the entire country because
| no one is getting that tax revenue.
|
| Instead of a business paying their share, all that money is
| instead transferred to the already-rich owners and investors
| (and yes, the corrupt officials in the local state).
|
| It's a prisoners-dilemma style arrangement for the benefit of
| the already rich and powerful. If it's not Louisiana, they'll
| find some other suckers to bribe.
| pc86 wrote:
| If you have evidence politicians are getting kickbacks out of
| that $47M tax break you'll be famous before the end of the
| week.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| It is particularly endemic to Louisiana which has an insane
| amount of chemical factories due to proximity to the Gulf of
| Mexico and the Mississippi River. All of them are getting tax
| breaks even though many have been here for 50 years and
| couldn't move if they wanted to.
| Tempest1981 wrote:
| Wasn't there also a site in Mount Pleasant? 3 sites total in
| Wisconsin?
|
| https://www.wisn.com/article/village-of-mount-pleasant-appro...
| chkaloon wrote:
| Yes, I think that was the biggest investment
| eunos wrote:
| So will be similar article in 2027 in which Foxconn -> TSMC?
| eps wrote:
| TSMC situation is different because of the political situation
| around Taiwan. They want to get out.
| eunos wrote:
| Morris Chang at least is actually doesn't believe that state
| of teh art TSMC fab can perform well outside TW.
| 0xDEF wrote:
| At least TSMC is actually building something and recruiting in
| the US. Foxconn just pinky promised.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| IMO, this is stands out among other things as a big reason for
| why Tony Evers was elected. So in a way, this helped WI in the
| end (by finally getting folks to see how big of an idiot Scott
| Walker is).
|
| Distant memory maybe, but I'd call it the beginning of the end of
| Republican control over a blue/purple state. Fingers crossed for
| new maps before 2024, but I'll be fine with 2026.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| I think it harms WI in the principle: someone got elected for
| reasons that turned out to be illusory.
|
| Just because it helped "your guy" this time doesn't make it a
| good thing.
| rhaway84773 wrote:
| Agreed. Id prefer a world where the Republican Party wasn't
| just a collections of scammers and the scammed.
| CameronNemo wrote:
| I think you might be misunderstanding. Evers didn't get
| elected by selling the scam Foxconn plant. He got elected
| _after_ it was clear that Scott Walker, his opponent, made
| promises about the plant that he could not keep.
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| I'm pretty sure they're saying the opposite of that. It was
| Trump who made it a big PR thing and then he and Walker lost
| after voters realized it was illusory.
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| Hopefully it's an ongoing lawsuit, although my memory is the
| various gifts the state gave to Foxconn came with very little in
| the way of guarantees.
|
| Some of this debacle was very well documented in a 2018 Reply All
| podcast. https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/wbhjwd
| aj7 wrote:
| Never not a scam.
| stevage wrote:
| I remember listening to a podcast episode a few years ago about
| this, very skeptical it was ever going to happen. It had totally
| divided the local community.
|
| I can't remember which podcast though!
| fleshdaddy wrote:
| Reply all did an episode about the Foxconn stuff at a specific
| town. Looked it up and it's called "Negative Mount Pleasant".
| It's been a long time since I've listened but I remember being
| very skeptical of the whole thing as well. I just have no idea
| why Foxconn would ever have an economic reason to pay for
| American labor when presumably they have a pretty large pool of
| much cheaper and closer labor available.
| Jerry2 wrote:
| Exact same things is happening with TSMC's $40 Billion plant in
| AZ. [1]
|
| [1] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/tsmc-
| delays-40bn-...
| pnpnp wrote:
| I think it's slightly more likely this will happen. From the
| Taiwanese perspective, this could be seen as partly collateral
| for some of the big defense sales that happened recently. The
| US is very motivated to bring some chip manufacturing back
| within its borders.
| iepathos wrote:
| Not really, tsm is delaying to find enough workers for their
| plant. They are still building it in AZ. Foxconn is changing a
| $40b investment into a $672m investment and selling the
| properties they had. Related but not the same thing at all. Not
| surprising TSM can't find workers with the low unemployment
| rates in the US.
| s5300 wrote:
| [dead]
| [deleted]
| stevage wrote:
| https://www.theverge.com/23030465/foxconn-lcd-factory-wiscon...
|
| Here's a nice frustrating article that kind of but doesn't really
| explain it.
| 0xDEF wrote:
| Why would a low-cost electronics contract manufacturer with
| factories in China and South East Asia suddenly make a factory in
| Wisconsin, USA?
|
| The factory was never going to happen. It was all about political
| favors.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| They were going to produce LCD panels. Presumably Detroit auto
| companies would find value contracting with them. Otherwise
| there's no point in making something to be shipped back to SEA
| for assembly.
| SnowProblem wrote:
| What's the real story here? Why did Trump say the $10B would not
| be spent if he was not re-elected? What "changing global market
| conditions" is Foxconn referring to?
|
| Edit: I found this interview here with a former Foxconn exec that
| goes some more detail: https://www.theverge.com/23030465/foxconn-
| lcd-factory-wiscon.... Summary as far as I can tell is that the
| deal from the previous republican governor was controversial
| because of the tax breaks and the next democratic governor
| renegotiated the deal. Politics, basically. I guess locals are OK
| with this? Seems unfortunate though since people lost their homes
| and it would have brought jobs.
| cowsandmilk wrote:
| > if he was not re-elected
|
| He didn't say that. He said this investment wouldn't have
| happened if he hadn't been elected in 2016.
| SnowProblem wrote:
| Thanks. That makes more sense.
| [deleted]
| earthtograndma wrote:
| He was talking about his election in 2016, claiming that
| Foxconn would not invest this great sum of money had Hillary
| Clinton been elected. As usual, he was looking backwards and
| spewing nonsense.
| rhaway84773 wrote:
| The real story is that Scott Walker offered FoxConn a
| nonsensical deal for a political victory for himself (Trump
| jumping onto it was a sideshow and irrelevant...the primary
| work was done by Scott Walker).
|
| The deal essentially gave Foxconn free money without requiring
| it do anything and Foxconn figured why not take the money and
| then see if we can also do something.
|
| They found out they couldn't. They tried to pivot to a more
| software/IT focused investment but the properties they had
| picked were not ideal for that being far away from where IT
| people lived. And they eventually gave up.
| lapcat wrote:
| > I found this interview here with a former Foxconn exec that
| goes some more detail
|
| Alan Yeung is full of crap, completely untrustworthy.
| bemusedthrow75 wrote:
| Trump was taking credit for something someone else did, as per
| usual. It's really that simple.
|
| The plans were always idiotic. The fact that Trump was too
| ignorant and/or poorly-advised not to take credit for them is
| just the icing on the kakistocracy.
| [deleted]
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