Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/10/ai-8k-5g-ecosystem.html
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The fact that Foxconn is promising an “AI 8K+5G ecosystem” – a meaningless buzzword only missing the word “blockchain” to score a perfect Gartner Hype Cycle bingo…
@doctorow, that made me laugh my ass off! Thank you, sir!
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Corporate welfare, stealing more money from the public coffers than all the “welfare queens” combined.
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What does the Foxconn say?
Also, combining “Fox” with “Con” was trolling brilliance…
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Ya think?!?
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I’m a little confused as to what “billions” Foxconn will be pocketing. The “subsidies” seem to consist mostly of tax breaks and infrastructure development…Foxconn hasn’t actually been given any $ at all. If Foxconn doesn’t end up building anything, they won’t be walking away with anything at all. They simply won’t be paying anything.
Didn’t Foxconn pull this stunt with Pennsylvania a few years back? It’s why Kasich when he was governor for Ohio rejected deals from Foxconn who wanted to repeat the scam there. It’s wild to see how this whole -bleep-show is going down. Cause I think what killed the Gen10 proposal was the fact that Corning or whomever makes the glass for the TVs wanted the same deal (5 billion dollar tax credit) but since the state legislature said no then that nixed the deal because Gen10 LCD and glass panels are too honkin’ big to be made separately. If you transport the glass to the assembly then there’s a good chance of breakages. So it was just logistically impossible (under capitalism).
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Foxconn’s inconsistent, chaotic behavior
Well, Foxconn’s behavior is historically consistent.
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Who owns the land where houses were demolished to make way for the “factory”?
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They’re using blight laws to remove the houses. It’s one of the current issues that’s on-going. They don’t even want to pay market rate for them.
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Here is a more in-depth summary of what they have received so far… millions, not billions.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-06/inside-wisconsin-s-disastrous-4-5-billion-deal-with-foxconn
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Like with the Carrier debacle, it’s a victory for Trump not because jobs are created, but because he can say jobs are being created and then no one talks about what’s really going on, afterwards. Of course, he doesn’t really care whether they are or not - if he cared, the deals would be structured such that there would be some guarantees that are absent.
Besides the exemption from all taxes, from what I’ve read they are getting direct cash subsidies as well. It was potentially up to 1.4 billion dollars, but apparently even if they do nothing they still get at least half a billion dollars over a couple years (and more if they do some minimum of hiring and construction - they can get all the money even if they don’t remotely fulfill their promises). Plus, they’ve certainly benefited here in other ways - e.g. just on the “factory” property alone. They got cheap (possibly free) land, and tax-free construction materials, exemptions from local environmental laws, over a billion dollars of infrastructure improvements (roads, water, electricity, internet) that specifically benefit that property, which means that when they sell it on, it’ll be worth orders of magnitude more than whatever they spent on it. So yeah, even if they build nothing, they’ll be walking away with extra money in their pockets that could add up to billions.
Plus, the state has definitely spent billions. The company would never have gotten the tax breaks it’s getting if the state had known their real plans; the tax breaks aren’t just assuming a massive operation, but that the operation would be a cornerstone of a manufacturing hub that would be located there (which, it turns out, isn’t happening regardless of what Foxconn do). Add the direct subsidies to that, and it’s one hell of a scam.
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Why prevaricate in the headline? “Looks” grifty? That’s like saying, kinda/sorta/a little bit. Taking public money on a broken promise makes them corporate thieves. Why not say so. Why is it so hard to say what you see, like that Kiwi guy recently calling f***book morally bankrupt pathological liars.
everything trump touches is a scam
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This monorail WILL BE BUILT!
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As someone who has built plastic crap in Chinese factories for twenty years I have two words: duh, and hahahahahahahaha-hahahahahah.
"It was a veritable lovefest in Milwaukee in July 2017 when Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Foxconn chairman Terry Gou announced their plan to create a heavily subsidized manufacturing plant in southeastern Wisconsin. Walker gushed that Gou, who founded his Taiwan-based company in 1974, was “one of the most remarkable business leaders in the world.” Gou returned the favor by saying, “I’ve never seen this type of governor or leader yet in this world.”
In other words: “I own you, you f***ing idiot.”
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Who would have thought the company that has to install anti-suicide nets to keep their workers in line wouldn’t be straight dealers?
Because recently Cory, who almost never updates posts or headlines even when they are factually incorrect, had to publicly apologize and retract a post referring to the Sacklers as criminals (presumably under threat of legal action for defamation, which would likely stick because accusations of criminality absent a conviction can be per se defamation). Now that Republicans have upped the “shut up the critics” defamation lawsuits to 11, there are real world dangers of life destroying bankruptcy from malicious lawsuits and caution is warranted when pointing out scumbags are scumbags.
“…global *GLUT in the supply of LCDs…”
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