That 30,000-job $10bn Trump-Foxconn Wisconsin plant. Wow, way worse than we'd imagined
It’s been three years since Wisconsin approved more than $3bn in incentives to bring Foxconn to the US state.
The Taiwanese monster manufacturer promised to build a $10bn plant making LCDs, requiring 30,000 workers, which was quickly reduced to 13,000, and turn Wisconsin into a Silicon Valley of the Midwest. It was a vision repeatedly promoted by President Trump.
“The eighth wonder of the world,” the hyperbolic reality TV star promised while claiming the deal was a reflection of him keeping his word to bring manufacturing back to America and make the country great again.
We last checked in two years ago, when the plant had been reduced to a twentieth of its original size, the planned job count had fallen again to 5,200, and Foxconn promised the LCD plant would open in 2020.
Back then, under fire and political pressure, with the President keen to show progress, Wisconsin’s then-governor Scott Walker using the project in his re-election bid, and growing concerns that literally nothing was happening, Foxconn saved face with a $100m grant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The plant should be open by now, and with the election just weeks away, The Verge has taken another look at what’s going on and… it’s not pretty.
The 30,000 -> 13,000 -> 5,200 jobs? They currently stand at 281. And according to the website’s extensive reporting, most of those workers sit around watching Netflix all day because they have literally nothing to do.
https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/20/wiconsin_foxconn_factory/
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