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Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

theverge.com

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Re: Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

#41

Post by evan_ »

ars wrote: post #12
quasse wrote: post #9

This entire project was a shameful example of political pump-and-dump by our former governor. He sold the more gullible elements of our state on this fairy tale about Foxconn, got lots of air time and Trump points out of it, made an abortive presidential run, and then got replaced and slunk into the shadows before the music stopped. Now our new Governor is left cleaning up the embarrassing mess while simultaneously b…

What does Foxconn get out of it? From the article they seem to have lost lots of money.

It says they failed to qualify for a subsidy so I assume they were planning on getting money from that.

Re: Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

#42

Post by sudosysgen »

tootie wrote: post #37
kenned3 wrote: post #19

This is a great article around why "corporate welfare" rarely works out. Also, semes like a textbook example of "eminent domain" abuse? We call this "expropriation" in Canada and it is rarely abused like this. Taking peoples property to give it to a private corporation? I can understand the need to take property for public use (roads, infra) but the US needs to end eminent domain abuse. If Foxconn needed the property…

Corporate subsidies work very well in certain conditions. The biggest is in investing in industries have big long-term potential but huge upfront costs. Power generation is a good example. Subsidies also tend to work best with a portfolio like a VC fund. The other option is for a very mature industries with inelastic demand where subsidies go directly to pushing down prices. Like with food and fuel.

In general, for such industries where corporate subsidies are really really worth it, a well run SoE will do the job with less risk.

For examples in power generation, EDF and HydroQuebec are cases where the government, instead of directly or indirectly subsidizing power generation, decided to just run it themselves, and they both have very clean (80% carbon free for EDF, 99.9% for HydroQuebec), and both make a solid profit while selling the electricty at very low costs (for HydroQuebec, the lowest unsubsidized cost in the world, full stop).

Re: Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

#43

Post by dylan604 »

xwdv wrote: post #18
sjg007 wrote: post #11

Man I can’t wait for the Netflix movie about this. What should the title be?

Foxconned , duh.

Wasn't this whole thing being dropped until a certain head of state got involved to convince the deal to continue? I would be very interested in what was offered to keep Foxconn from walking away.

Re: Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

#44

Post by schemescape »

> Woo said these researchers would be developing Foxconn’s “AI 8K+5G ecosystem,” something that, other than being a list of different technologies, has never been coherently explained.

And we’re supposed to be surprised this didn’t work out? :)

Re: Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

#45

Post by pg_bot »

kenned3 wrote: post #19

This is a great article around why "corporate welfare" rarely works out. Also, semes like a textbook example of "eminent domain" abuse? We call this "expropriation" in Canada and it is rarely abused like this. Taking peoples property to give it to a private corporation? I can understand the need to take property for public use (roads, infra) but the US needs to end eminent domain abuse. If Foxconn needed the property…

You can blame the worst supreme court decision in the 21st century for that. (Kelo v City of New London)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

Re: Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

#47

Post by Jon_Lowtek »

> The other initiative, called Foxconn Future Leaders, targeted recent college graduates

> Employees ..., no matter what role they had been hired for, were told to figure out what Foxconn should do in Wisconsin themselves.

> The new management seemed increasingly open in its disdain for the local workforce. “Why are Americans paid so much and do so little? I can’t tell you how many times we heard that,” said one employee. “It was certainly a toxic work environment”

> the office began to fill with people who had nothing to do. Many just sat in their cubicles watching Netflix and playing games on their phones

Well its obvious: politic and corporate are at fault: should have hired at least some people who actually know what the job is they got hired for, not just slackers and slavers. This is far too typical for large corporations: no real plan, hire cheap, have n-layers of management where everyone pretends everything is going well, but since no one has any clue the whole thing grinds to a halt, fails and burns once the initial inertia runs out.

Re: Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

#48

Post by jacobwilliamroy »

person_of_color wrote: post #46

Amazing corporate power play by Foxconn. Congrats. The fact that they do it around the world with little repercussions is amazing.

I fixed some of your spelling errors:

"Shameful fraud by foxconn. Shame on them. The fact they do it around the world with little repercussions is shameful."

Re: Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

#49

Post by germinalphrase »

quasse wrote: post #9

This entire project was a shameful example of political pump-and-dump by our former governor. He sold the more gullible elements of our state on this fairy tale about Foxconn, got lots of air time and Trump points out of it, made an abortive presidential run, and then got replaced and slunk into the shadows before the music stopped. Now our new Governor is left cleaning up the embarrassing mess while simultaneously b…

I was upset about losing the high speed rail, but the Foxconn deal made me wild. It was so clearly a con job from the beginning.

Re: Foxconn’s empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin

#50

Post by sudosysgen »

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #48
person_of_color wrote: post #46

Amazing corporate power play by Foxconn. Congrats. The fact that they do it around the world with little repercussions is amazing.

I fixed some of your spelling errors: "Shameful fraud by foxconn. Shame on them. The fact they do it around the world with little repercussions is shameful."

It is incredibly shameful, but sometimes the utter disregard they have for the taxpayer is so stunning and brazen that you can't help but admire.
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