https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/10/...ory-innovation-centers-technology-hub-no-news
Great long form read, the complete scam of this won't be unfolded for years
Great long form read, the complete scam of this won't be unfolded for years
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The Verge: Foxconn is confusing the hell out of Wisconsin
- Thread starter Slayven
- Start date
No money actually changed hands though right? The incentives are probably tax breaks. Any money spent so far seems to be on infrastructure.
Who is the scam helping, GCs?
Who is the scam helping, GCs?
OP
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Everyone has a theory but the writer of the article I think has the closes. It was PR bullshit that blew up
There's literally financial impact in the OP to the taxpayers in Wisconsin. In addition to the people that had to give up land
Well yes, but for a scam to be worth doing at this level, presumably the people doing the scam are profiting off of it and not just doing it for the lols and to waste tax payer money.
The most obvious profit to me was short term good press but that seems like it will backfire pretty bad in Wisconsin.
Haven't been following it that closely, but it sounds like there's been a bunch of political reorganization and infrastructure financed on the assumption of massive incoming development. Best case scenario, that infrastructure is still useful and can attract investment if/when Foxconn underdelivers; worse case scenario you displaced a bunch of residents to build roads to nowhere...
But yeah it seems to have been motivated entirely by publicity, which is bonkers? The only other thing I could imagine is that it's a scheme for funneling money to particular well-connected contractors.
Yep lives have already been upended, taxpayer funds spent, high interest loans taken out that will impact the state for decades... for what, a PR bump that lasted a single news cycle?
You could read the article. It talks about how one of the things this scam is for is to win trumps good will during the trade war while not actually doing anything
It seems like an effort to curry favor with Trump/Republicans. Foxconn tossed out the bait of "manufacturing jobs!" and Wisconsin Republicans bit hard. And while I don't think Trump was actually involved in setting up this deal at all (Foxconn approached Wisconsin and municipalities like Mount Pleasant), Foxconn's chairman Gou announced the deal at a White House press conference, and Trump showed up for the groundbreaking in Wisconsin. Trump's got skin in the game now - when Foxconn said earlier this year that they may not end up building a factory after all, Gou got a personal phone call from Trump and reversed their position within a day. I don't know if Trump and Gou reached any particular agreements themselves, but Trump's personally invested in the success (real or potential) of this factory, given his personal involvement in its announcement.
As the article suggests, it sounds like they're going to keep stringing things along like this until after the 2020 election. If it all comes crashing down, it looks bad for Wisconsin officials involved in securing these deals, and Trump for promoting them, so it's in Foxconn's best interest to at least pretend that everything's still on track. They have the ear of the president after all. (The ease with which corporate leaders and foreign strongmen have been able to ply Trump with promises and flattery is another, broader concern.)
The article mentions a similar process of big investments from Foxconn that never panned out, but most state/local governments didn't go as hard as Wisconsin did.
Some of us are bad at parsing through an extremely long and confusing article about a very long and confusing boondoggle and would like to discuss with others to help clear up the confusion.
Telling someone to just read the article is hardly conducive to good discussion especially in this situation. Different levels of intelligence exist.
No one in this picture should escape this embarrassment.
Now we'll see if the media and Dems do their jobs correctly. If Republicans can still trot out the Solyndra "scandal" for ammunition against green energy and Obama, then I think Dems can be smart enough to use this in many many ways.
1. Announce plans to create jobs. Do some PR.
2. Next election: blame Democrats for killing the deal.
It's quite brilliant, actually, once you realize the audience you're playing to. It cost them nothing; every cent was paid for by the people they are scamming. And I have little doubt that plenty of the money spent to date was misdirected into the pockets of the GOP and its supporters.
The only flaw is that Wisconsin is a swing state, not a red one; there might be enough people who don't buy it. Let's hope so.
2. Next election: blame Democrats for killing the deal.
It's quite brilliant, actually, once you realize the audience you're playing to. It cost them nothing; every cent was paid for by the people they are scamming. And I have little doubt that plenty of the money spent to date was misdirected into the pockets of the GOP and its supporters.
The only flaw is that Wisconsin is a swing state, not a red one; there might be enough people who don't buy it. Let's hope so.
I was pointing out that the article literally talks about your question numerous times. You don't have to get pissy over it. It's not exactly conductive of good discussion to not bother to read the OP and not bother to read what the article is about.
I'm guessing the winners are whoever (whomever?) gets the roadwork contracts and vacant land Foxconn freed up that they'll be selling for cheap to get anything on it.
All of whom will be friends with (or have investments by) the politicians that created this mess.
All of whom will be friends with (or have investments by) the politicians that created this mess.
the Last bit of the article where the writer speculates what foxconn was after is spot on. The Wisconsin GOP are just fucking morons and got a dupee by a company famous for announcing the factory equivalent of vaporware.
Follow-up:
Foxconn says empty buildings in Wisconsin are not empty | While announcing another empty building (The Verge)
Foxconn to buy BMO Harris Bank building on Capitol Square (Wisconsin State Journal)
Basically they said "Nuh uh!" to the article's claims and bought another building (in Madison) that's currently occupied by a bank (which will now lease their space from Foxconn). No details except they'll have some unspecified number of Foxconn employees in by the end of the year.
Foxconn says empty buildings in Wisconsin are not empty | While announcing another empty building (The Verge)
Foxconn to buy BMO Harris Bank building on Capitol Square (Wisconsin State Journal)
Basically they said "Nuh uh!" to the article's claims and bought another building (in Madison) that's currently occupied by a bank (which will now lease their space from Foxconn). No details except they'll have some unspecified number of Foxconn employees in by the end of the year.
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Literally 1 West Main Street.
Directly across the street from the Capitol Square. Where they can keep eye on things.
So if Foxconn isn't actually going to build shit then what's the point? I understand bailing out or downsizing if it doesn't make economic sense but surely they have to be doing more than pissing away money?
Another follow-up:
One month ago, Foxconn said its innovation centers weren't empty — they still are (The Verge) | Foxconn still hasn't done anything with the buildings it bought in Wisconsin
One month ago, Foxconn said its innovation centers weren't empty — they still are (The Verge) | Foxconn still hasn't done anything with the buildings it bought in Wisconsin
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I hope HBO or Netflix is on this shit, it will be a hell of a docu
As someone who grew up 30 minutes from Mount Pleasant and who still has a ton of friends and family in the area I'm honestly just still tremendously relieved that this is all falling apart. The taxpayer waste is atrocious, but the environmental impact of the actual manufacturing plant was going to be so much worse. Thank god they won't be able to actually stat pumping chemicals into the water
Thanks for posting this, half way through, its super interesting.
Yeah iirc on the Vergecast they said they literally needed to hire 50 people to reach some lower limit bonus and they didn't even do that
It does. Feels like somebody in the hierarchy wanted to discreetly get some money away from Winnie's sight.
I wish it was a money laundering scam. It would be far less pathetic than what actually happened.
I believe there are also video footages of the exchanges at the town meetings. I've been planning to search/watch those when I got a chance...especially the part with the old brotha going off.
