September 20, 2017

"Before the Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn pledged to spend $10 billion and create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin, the company made a similar promise in Brazil."

"At a news conference in Brazil, Foxconn officials unveiled plans to invest billions of dollars and build one of the world’s biggest manufacturing hubs in the state of São Paulo. The government had high expectations that the project would yield 100,000 jobs. Six years later, Brazil is still waiting for most of those jobs to materialize.... In China, Foxconn has built vast factories backed by large government subsidies.... But the model does not translate easily to other countries, where Foxconn must navigate different social, political and labor conditions...."

From the NYT, "Before Wisconsin, Foxconn Vowed Big Spending in Brazil. Few Jobs Have Come.."

33 comments:

Big Mike said...

Times has developed quite an appetite for sour grapes.

Freder Frederson said...

Foxconn should be renamed Fox Con

Nyamujal said...

BTW, what happened to those Carrier jobs that Trump saved?

victoria said...

Saw that one coming. From the outset, the entire deal seemed fishy. Good for Trumpy and his talking points, bad for America. Deals that aren't really deals, Trump's stock in trade.


Vicki from Pasadena

Nonapod said...

In Brazil, Foxconn’s plans unraveled quickly. The administration that had wooed the company was soon swept from power amid corruption allegations and an impeachment vote. Some of the tax breaks that had been promised were reduced or abandoned, as economic growth and consumer spending slumped.

Well that's certainly not Foxconn's fault.

Re the Wisconsin project: There's a lot of bureaucratic hurdles that need to be cleared, but if there's enough political will it'll happen eventually. Whether or not it'll ultimately prove to be net gain for Wisconsin is a whole other discussion..

Michael K said...

So the NY Times tries to provide cover for the Democrats in Wisconsin, and the lefties here, who oppose the deal because it makes Walker look good.

What a surprise !

Now I Know! said...

Trump and Scott Walker are doling out corporate welfare by the billions of dollars.

No surprise here.

Achilles said...

The left would rather have those plants in Mexico where the people get paid almost nothing. The left hates it when people have jobs.

Curious George said...

NYT's (and Fredor) can't tell an apple from an orange.

Wisconsin has a quid pro quo deal with Foxconn, which was not true of the PA situation. And the US is not Brazil. Hard for a corporation to invest billions in a market that can be taken away with a change of governments.

Birkel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Birkel said...

Three Leftist comments in the first four?

Middle class jobs threaten the Democrat's plans?

Now I Know! said...

Scott Walker and the Republican majority in the the state legislature claim they have made Wisconsin "open for business." If they have truly made Wisconsin attractive then the free market should make companies want to relocate here. The state taking taxpayers money and giving it away as corporate welfare is the opposite of the free market at work.

Michael said...

Lefties have a sad on with the stock market at an all time high, unemployment falling, consumer sentiment rising. Odd. One would think that they would rejoice. The progs, as usual, only read the headline and not the article in which it was made clear that political corruption in Brazil was the proximate cause and not some sneaky plot by the Chinese.

But why are the progs rooting for failure?

Now I Know! said...

Welcome to Trump's and Walker's People Republic of Wisconsin

Gahrie said...

Trump and Scott Walker are doling out corporate welfare by the billions of dollars.

Nobody has given out as much corporate welfare as Obama did.

Todd said...

Gahrie said...
Trump and Scott Walker are doling out corporate welfare by the billions of dollars.

Nobody has given out as much corporate welfare as Obama did.

9/20/17, 10:46 AM


You take that back! I am so loving all of my nearly free Solyndra 100% sustainable, renewable, solar energy! Oh wait...

rehajm said...

Yes it is absurd to blame Foxconn for the problems of corruption and reneging on promjses made by the Brazilian government. Ya’ll in WI got anybidy might undermine their deal there?

NYT also neglets to mentoon how quickly Brazil went from stable up and comer to kind of ashit show. That could have had something to do with it as well..

Michael said...

Now I know
Apparently you do not yet know what a "free market" entails. Wisconsin was what is known as "competing" for the FoxConn business and it made a proposal that won that business. The taxpayer money in this case is what is referred to as "an investment" and the rewards if that investment pays off will be not just in jobs but in an array of ancillary businesses that will spring up to support and supply the plant. A bit of study of the payoffs to South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama for the incentives they created to attract auto manufacturers would be useful to you in grasping the concept of a "free market."

Curious George said...

"Now I Know! said...
Trump and Scott Walker are doling out corporate welfare by the billions of dollars.

Scott Walker and the Republican majority in the the state legislature claim they have made Wisconsin "open for business." If they have truly made Wisconsin attractive then the free market should make companies want to relocate here. The state taking taxpayers money and giving it away as corporate welfare is the opposite of the free market at work."

What a steaming pile. The deal has requirements for Foxconn to invest billions, and create jobs, to receive any benefits from Wisconsin. Corporate welfare is what Democrats do....you know, giving away millions to companies like Solyndra for nothing in return, just to see the money go to cronies and the companies fail.

What a twit.

Thorley Winston said...

Scott Walker and the Republican majority in the the state legislature claim they have made Wisconsin "open for business." If they have truly made Wisconsin attractive then the free market should make companies want to relocate here. The state taking taxpayers money and giving it away as corporate welfare is the opposite of the free market at work.

The problem though is that the “market” Wisconsin and other States are competing in when it comes to encouraging businesses to (re)locate there isn’t a “free market.” It is very much about State’s offering corporate welfare packages to lure businesses in and States that refuse to play the game are going to be at a disadvantage in the economic war among the states. One State refusing to play the game isn’t going to change it, what’s probably needed is eliminate or curtail the ability of States to offer these sorts of subsidies (e.g. limiting the ability of States to use their borrowing power to offer loans at reduced rates, treating tax breaks at the State and local level as fully taxable at the federal level, etc.) so that they really are competing based on their overall business climate.



Now I Know! said...

It's called the Fox Con for a reason.

Thanks Trump and Walker.

buwaya said...

Wouldnt such restrictions on state economic policy be in opposition to federalism?

That would be yet another central government pre-emption of local freedoms. If a State gets into trouble with its corporatist excesses, then it is their problem entirely.

Static Ping said...

Brazil is a mess. It is not really indicative of anything. It's somewhat embarrassing to think that it does.

Curious George said...

"Now I Know! said...
It's called the Fox Con for a reason.

Thanks Trump and Walker."

The reason it's called "Fox Con" is that morons like you exist. And it's a state deal. Trump has nothing to do with it you twit.

roesch/voltaire said...

Given the rate that technology changes and the increased use of robotics in manufacturing, I suspect the human work force will be far less than 13,000 and that a good number of those will come from Illinois folks who didn't have to give away anything to get those jobs..And although there are requirements to Foxy Con receiving money, I suspect those can be re-negotiated as part of making the deal. Never-the-less as a proud Wisconsin citizen and educator I am hoping for the best: more high tech jobs, more money for higher education which will support those jobs , and more young entrepreneurs who will stay in Wisconsin.

Bricap said...

Corporations have state/county/local governments over a barrel. Subsidize us or we are outta here. It also happens with sports franchises, and too many studies say that governments overpay to keep or lure teams nearly every time. It's one big game of prisoner's dilemma.

It's not to say that the Foxconn has no chance. I want to think it could be a linchpin to a recovery in a depressed manufacturing region, but I have to wonder how many other potential relocators are going to demand similar deals to set up shop.

The other countercurrent working against a manufacturing revival is automation. How automated will this Foxconn plant be 25 years from now, assuming it does get built and is operational. How does that affect the numbers?

Unfortunately I couldn't locate the report put out by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. An attempt to connect to it from two different articles sent me to a page that said it wasn't there.

Birkel said...

To recap the last decade of Democrat arguments in Wisconsin politics:

The state acting as dues collector for unions who give money back to politicians who vote for union friendly rules is required. Democrats will flee the state to prove that point. (Act 10)

Workers must give unions money. (Act 1)

Businesses relocating to Wisconsin that come, in part, through any inducement whatsoever are inherently wrong. (FoxConn)

I suspect blue collar workers understand their place in the Democrat heirarchy.

Earnest Prole said...

It sounds just like Trump in Taiwanese form -- not that there's anything wrong with that!

Michael said...

The progs hate progress! Jeez, reading their comments here you would think they want the economy to tank, for this deal to fail, for the jobs not to materialize. Odd.

JackWayne said...

I worked for an oil co that tried to do business in Brazil. Carrot and stick. The carrot was the promises. The stick was the real deal. Which we abandoned as it was no deal at all.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Now I know
Apparently you do not yet know what a "free market" entails."

Now I Know knows very little about anything.

But it's wonderful to see all these spiteful liberals sourly wishing for high unemployment because it would serve those Deplorable right!

Such nice, well-adjusted people you are.

buwaya said...

"a good number of those will come from Illinois folks who didn't have to give away anything to get those jobs.."

But wouldn't they be Wisconsin folks, as good as or better than the natives, the moment they are Wisconsin residents?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

If there's one thing Democrats hate it's corporate welfare...well, corporate welfare that Republicans give out.

There's hypocrisy enough to go around. Give Trump this much credit: he doesn't claim to be a small government free market guy. He's happy to dole out the government cash for corporations--maybe almost as happy as Obama was!

Me, I'm a small government free market type, so all of these gov. favoritism deals strike me as bad ideas. My state gives out plenty of 'em (we're neck-and-neck for most entertainment industry subsidies!) and other than some nice headlines I don't think most of them really pay off.

But yeah, it's a bit rich to hear Obama-supporting Dems complain about government giveaways! I still have a picture on my phone somewhere of a road crew leaning against their tools right across from a big orange "This Project Brought To You By Federal Stimulus Spending" sign near my old apartment.

I'm not sure anyone even remembers how to spell Solyndra anymore, much less misses the half a billion dollars that the DOE pissed away guaranteeing their soon-to-fail loans. The part that I will always remember is that they got to carry almost that much in net operating loss tax offsets forward, out of their subsequent bankruptcy! Not a bad deal if you're on the right side of the table, I guess.

But yeah, crony capitalism: that's something only those greedy Republicans do. Totally.