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No one epitomizes the hollowness of the pose of the "hard-nosed businessman" than @ScottWalker, the union-busting thug who, as governor of Wisconsin, signed up to give away $3b to the Taiwanese electronics giant @foxconnoficial, who promised a massive new factory.
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This was an obviously bad deal right from the start. For literally decades, Foxconn had been tricking rubes like Walker into handing over vast public subsidies for electronics plants that were then drastically scaled down, or canceled altogether.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/08/foxconns-con-seeking-whopping-subsidies-for-wisconsin-michigan-manufacturing-jobs-if-they-happen.html
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https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/08/foxconns-con-seeking-whopping-subsidies-for-wisconsin-michigan-manufacturing-jobs-if-they-happen.html
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But Walker - presently joined by Trump - didn't care. All he cared about was being able to maintain the pretence that "business-friendly" policies (smashing unions, eliminating worker protections) would attract "investment" that would make everyone better off.
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The public subsidy promised to Foxconn kept on growing, rising to nearly $5b, even as Foxconn reneged on its promises, eventually refusing to say what kind of factory - if any - it would build.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/13/21020885/foxconn-wisconsin-deal-renegotiate-tax-subsidy-lcd-factory-plant
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https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/13/21020885/foxconn-wisconsin-deal-renegotiate-tax-subsidy-lcd-factory-plant
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Foxconn kept up the pretense of activity, though. At one point, it used all that public subsidy money to buy up or rent out a bunch of Wisconsin's nicest urban buildings and announced that they would be "innovation centers," which sat, empty.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/10/18296793/foxconn-wisconsin-location-factory-innovation-centers-technology-hub-no-news
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https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/10/18296793/foxconn-wisconsin-location-factory-innovation-centers-technology-hub-no-news
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Periodically, the company would announce that these innovation centers were now thriving, filled with Wisconsin startups that would plug into the Foxconn commercial/manufacturing ecosystem, but...they were still empty.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/13/18565408/foxconn-wisconsin-innovation-centers-factories-empty-tax-subsidy
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https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/13/18565408/foxconn-wisconsin-innovation-centers-factories-empty-tax-subsidy
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All of this commercial theater kept the deal alive, kept the subsidy money flowing, and served as a convincer as Foxconn sought out other suckers who'd hand it more public subsidy on the promise of a plant in their out-of-the-way town.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/12/mammon-worshippers/#scott-at-at-walker
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/12/mammon-worshippers/#scott-at-at-walker
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This is the REAL "art of the deal." Foxconn let Trump and Walker run around, claiming to have brought manufacturing back to America, even as it floated trial balloons like, "What if we scrap the factory and instead export Wisconsin dairy to China?"
https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/23/foxconned/#foxconned
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/23/foxconned/#foxconned
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Walker eventually lost his job to @govevers, who commissioned an independent investigation to see what parts of the massive Foxconn deal could possibly be salvaged. The auditors' conclusion was what NONE OF IT was viable. None of it.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/6/20747166/wisconsin-foxconn-deal-state-report-lcd-factory-innovation-centers
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https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/6/20747166/wisconsin-foxconn-deal-state-report-lcd-factory-innovation-centers
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But all this came years after Walker's administration and Racine County had seized family homes near the Foxconn site to make way for a road-widening project to help the trucks that would never come reach the factory that would never be built.
https://beltmag.com/blighted-by-foxconn/
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https://beltmag.com/blighted-by-foxconn/
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People lost the homes they'd lived in for generations, all for unconvincing political theater that allowed Walker and Trump to do a little boasting and empty the public coffers into the accounts of a global tech giant best known for driving its factory workers to suicide.
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Four years later, the con appears to be winding down. Foxconn has officially admitted that rather than investing $10b, it will invest $1b and instead of creating 13,000 jobs, it will create 1,454.
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As @ddayen writes for @TheProspect, it's a prelude to killing the deal altogether. Foxconn isn't even sure what this imaginary factory will build. Maybe parts for network switches? Maybe electric cars? (My money is on dairy farms!)
https://prospect.org/power/foxconn-finally-admits-con/
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https://prospect.org/power/foxconn-finally-admits-con/
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Gov Evers has whittled Foxconn's promised subsidy down to $80m, which Foxconn will have to return if it doesn't deliver (Trump, take note: that's how you do a deal).
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But Evers couldn't save the state from all of Walker and Trump's foolishness. They've already blown $200m on "sales and use tax exemptions, state road improvements, and grants to local governments for workforce training."
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Far worse off is the village of Mt Pleasant and the County of Racine, who've blown $1b on the nonexistent factory, including $160m to seize and destroy their residents' family homes, and $117m to run power to the empty site where no factory will be built.
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The State of Wisconsin is supposed to pay the county and town 40% of that expenditure; writing in @GoodJobsFirst, @GregLeRoy4 argues that the state should cover 100% of those payouts and then recoup it from Foxconn.
https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/news/releases/revamped-foxconn-deal-leaves-mt-pleasant-and-racine-county-fiscal-peril
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https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/news/releases/revamped-foxconn-deal-leaves-mt-pleasant-and-racine-county-fiscal-peril
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As Dayen says: "Rather than offering bribes to corporate giants, they’d be much better off improving their education, health care, and transportation systems, making them more attractive to businesses."
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"That would have the dual benefit of making their cities and states nicer to live in. Wouldn’t that be a concept."
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ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on http://pluralistic.net , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#monorail
https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#monorail
