The lawmakers in Wisconsin voted in favor of an incentives package worth up to $3B for Foxconn. The total value of the package depends on the number of jobs that Foxconn creates in the state, so, effectively, the state is paying about $500,000 for each new job.
Most of the incentive is in the form of cash payments from the state to Foxconn, not just tax waivers. The cost to the residents of the state is about $1,200 per household.
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For years, iPhones (or their boxes) have said that they were "designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China." But thanks to an escalating trade war between the US and China, that might not be true in the coming years. Reuters reports that two of Apple's biggest manufacturing contractors, Foxconn and Pegatron, are working to expand their facilities in Mexico with an eye toward eventually building iPhones there.
[...] This isn't Foxconn's only effort to diversify away from China. Last year, Foxconn announced plans to begin manufacturing iPhones in India, and the company is now manufacturing the iPhone SE there.
Sources told Reuters that Taiwan-based iPhone contractor Pegatron is also considering a shift to Mexico, but few details about its plans are known.
Previously:
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:22AM (12 children)
At first I wanted to be smart and say this wouldn't cost anything, the I RTFA and realized they're outright paying the company.
It would be one thing to exempt them from taxes, up to $3B but to pay them is just silly. As an article linked in the summary says, it will take 25 years for WI to break even on this corporate welfare.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday August 20 2017, @01:12AM (1 child)
Yeah, where are the posters from when this topic came up earlier, who claimed that Wisconsin couldn't lose on this deal, because any extra tax revenue was a net increase in tax revenue for the state?
In other words, where are the people who denied earlier that the state was actually paying Foxconn?
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday August 20 2017, @03:13AM
I see the cowards don't want to admit how wrong they were. Apparently, the truth (that this is simply crony capitalism and will likely never pay back) hurts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @01:47AM (2 children)
Assuming in-state construction contractors, they'll take around $1B back in tax before the plant is even complete. The contracts for service companies with this plant will be ongoing and attract more inward investment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @04:38AM (1 child)
So they give some corporation $3B to collect $1B in tax revenue from construction companies? Awesome math skills. Follow the money and see where the kickbacks go.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @09:10PM
They could pay $3B to the construction companies to build some infrastructure. Those companies would then pay taxes and employ more people, and good infrastructure could support more local businesses to get even more taxes...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:48AM (2 children)
capitalism 101
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday August 20 2017, @03:59PM (1 child)
At least the crony version.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Osamabobama on Tuesday August 22 2017, @12:21AM
So, probably capitalism 102, then?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Sunday August 20 2017, @10:54AM (3 children)
I have an even better deal for WI. If they pay me the $3B, I guarantee them $1B in immediate cash returns. A downright bargain compared to what Fox-con is offering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:14PM (2 children)
I'll make it even better. If they pay me just 2.9 billion, I'll guarantee them an immediate cash return of $1.2 billion, and I'll even build a small mental health facility to house the lawmakers that voted for the foxconn facility. :)
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:19PM (1 child)
I'll improve on your bid by offering $2.8B.... wait, hang on, if we keep doing this eventually WI may actually break even. How about we both offer $2.8B and split the difference? That way it's still several hundred million each, and my accountant knows how to launder it via Ireland so it's all tax-free.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @04:40PM
You guys are forgetting the most important part of the deal - funneling 25% of the $2.8b back into the reelection campaign funds of Walker & the rest of the GOP.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Grishnakh on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:36AM (10 children)
On behalf of the Foxconn stockholders, I'd like to thank the generous people of Wisconsin for volunteering to give them $3 billion out of their taxes, even if this means raising their income tax rates. This will work out very well for the Foxconn stockholders, and also for those of us in the other 49 states who might buy products made there by Foxconn. It's going to be a sacrifice for the people of Wisconsin, but that's OK. They did the smart thing by electing Republicans, so they can make sure that instead of having high taxes to pay for social programs, their high taxes can instead help out corporate stockholders, which is a far more worthy pursuit.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:07AM (4 children)
The joke will be on you when Trump begins trade war with China and assumes American ownership of all assets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:36AM
Stupidly speaking, that is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @03:40AM
Ah, the same thing that led to the South China Sea Standoff in my timeline after President Clinton enacted TPP/TTIP/TISA.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @09:13AM (1 child)
The joke will be on you when China will respond in kind and assume ownership of all American plants while also pulling out of the copyright treaties and duplicating anything of value the US is producing.
More specifically to the actual plant, the US is failing to compete against China in heavy silicone and electronics assembly because of the higher wages in the US that are attributed to the higher cost of living. Building - or appropriating - plants from the Chinese won't change this. The Chinese will still make cheaper phones and PCs. And the world will continue buying those cheap consumer electronics over the expensive US products.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday August 20 2017, @10:56AM
Or threaten to crash the US dollar by dumping their T-bills. That's what the US did to the UK in 1956, no reason why it wouldn't work again.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @04:10AM (1 child)
We can't afford single payer health care, but we can afford corporate welfare, completely unnecessary military interventions in 7 countries, mass surveillance on the populace, etc. But there's no way the richest country on the planet could pull off single payer.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday August 20 2017, @05:32AM
No, that's socialism (tm)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by tibman on Sunday August 20 2017, @04:53AM (2 children)
They seem to be about half democrat and half republican. Looks like 5 Republican and 3 Democrat congressmen right now. 1 Republican senator and 1 Democrat senator. Trump won over Hillary but only by ~23,000 votes. That's damn close.
I agree that paying Foxconn is stupid. But saying it's because they elected ONLY republicans is wrong.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 5, Informative) by tonyPick on Sunday August 20 2017, @09:18AM (1 child)
From TFA
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:33PM
See? Both sides are responsible. Just like all sides are responsible for the violence at protests!!!!111!1
Oh gawd MAGA! MAGA! TRUMP 2020!!!!11111!!11
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:48AM (1 child)
Give me half a million and I can reduce unemployment by one. I'll retire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:19PM
On half a million? What are you? 60? Because that's only 100k per year.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mendax on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:55AM (2 children)
This is a classic example of corporate welfare clear and simple. If the governor has any brains he'd veto it, but since he's Scott Walker the taxpayers of Wisconsin are doomed to pay for this boondoggle.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @01:46AM
They definitely ARE the cheese state.
As in Cheeseheads.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:35PM
Gov. Scott Walker, un-indicted. Suspected to have been the model, in a back-causality time line, for the Scarecrow in "One Flew Over the Cuckold's Nest". Or was it "The Wizard of Foxconn"? In any case, a Koch Brothers puppet, intend on destroying Wisconsin, and then America, and After that, the World! All in the name of free speech and Nazi shit.
And yes, Republicans really are this stupid.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RedBear on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:18AM (6 children)
There are often things that I say boggle my mind, but this really takes the cake in mind-boggling territory. These are the same people who cry that any increase in the minimum wage will destroy America. These are the same people who say that we can't afford to feed hungry children in American schools. These are the same people who say that America couldn't possibly move to tax-funded universal health care, even though it would actually cost significantly less for the average American versus the ridiculous rates we pay to the health insurance companies. Yet they are willing to _pay_ a private corporation half a million dollars in cash money for every job they create. What type of math is this? I don't remember learning this in school. How the hell could, at best, a few hundred minimum-wage jobs be worth that kind of waste of taxpayer funds? They'd be better off just taking that $3B and writing a $1,000 check to 3 million low-income Wisconsins.
How this is not simply called corruption is beyond me.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 1) by Virindi on Sunday August 20 2017, @03:45AM
What if I don't want to pay for any of these things?
Just because our elected officials make a mockery of our principles does not mean those principles are inherently invalid.
Corrupt payouts come from both sides of the aisle. Often the beneficiaries are even the same.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Sunday August 20 2017, @06:51AM (4 children)
"How this is not simply called corruption is beyond me."
This.
The population of Wisconsin is under 6 million, so this is $500 per person, or maybe $2000 per family. If you took a vote, the chances that the majority of voters would approve this? Need we ask? The state would be economically better off, if they reduced state taxes by this amount.
I really hope someone will dig into the money trail. It's a sure bet that some of this money is flowing back to the politicians through campaign donations, or perhaps even more direct routes. It would be really nice to see some jail time, if not for corruption, at least for malfeasance.
It's so easy, to spend other people's money. Especially when some of it lands in your own pocket.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Sunday August 20 2017, @05:41PM (3 children)
The population of Wisconsin is under 6 million, so this is $500 per person, or maybe $2000 per family. If you took a vote, the chances that the majority of voters would approve this? Need we ask? The state would be economically better off, if they reduced state taxes by this amount.
They DID take a vote. The people voted for representatives and a governor who champion this. The people (a majority of them at any rate) are getting exactly what they voted for.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @09:18PM (1 child)
Campaigns are not single-issue, I don't believe the option on the ballot was "let's just give corporations money". Maybe voters were afraid of the gayification that a Democratic administration would bring, so they voted GOP.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @07:26AM
Exactly. Just because people voted for someone in a two party system that encourages voting for who you see as the lesser evil does not mean they agree with all of their policies. General mandates do not exist and I am tired of seeing people pretend otherwise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @11:25PM
A vote marred by unlawful gerrymandering (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/19/533519165/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-wisconsin-gerrymandering-case). The GOP should not have the dominance in the state house that they do.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @03:52AM
According to this, http://prospect.org/article/disclosing-costs-corporate-welfare [prospect.org]
New reporting rules are now coming into effect and, rolling in over the next couple of years, there will be much more open accounting of all these corporate giveaways. This should give the flavor, but the article has more details and a link to one database that has already been set up.
No idea if this will be enough, but it does look like some hope.
(Score: 3, Touché) by jasassin on Sunday August 20 2017, @06:09AM (5 children)
I hope they don't forget to allocate a few thousand dollars on the suicide nets.
Fuck you Foxcon.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @08:59AM (3 children)
Your aggression against foxcon is utterly misplaced. This is entirely the choice of government. The government who will send "state police" (goons) to "confiscate" (steal) your property if you fail to pay their "taxes" (protection money). Not foxcon.
If you wish to rally against the culprits, you must hold the politicians accountable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @09:25AM (1 child)
"The politicians made me do it!"
What a sad excuse for an excuse...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @09:31AM
No "The politicians did it"
Why are you trying to deflect the blame from those responsible?
Foxcon could ask for a handout, but only government has the power to grant it.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @09:24PM
> The government who will send "state police" (goons) to "confiscate" (steal) your property if you fail to pay their "taxes" (protection money).
If you dislike paying taxes so much, so by extension oppose things like roads, sewage, and electricity, you should go live in a forest. Then you will have your FREEEEEDOM!
Just be careful that it's not a forest that government maintains, since that also comes out of taxes. Maybe a desert would be a better choice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @03:43PM
Don't assume they "forgot" the suicide nets.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Sunday August 20 2017, @08:10AM (8 children)
That is a new low for corporate welfare shenanigans.... LOL...
Where should I sign up MY company to get such cushy state subsidies?!
I'm pretty sure I can give them a FAR better job per dollar return than Foxconn....
What a joke! :-(
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @09:02AM (7 children)
Realise the only differnce between this and other forms of welfare are the beneficiaries.
If this outrages you then, all welfare should outrage you.
All welfare is stealing from Peter to pay Paul.
In both cases the culprit is not the beneficiary, but those who do the stealing and the giving away of the ill-gotten-gains.
The government. This is the government's fault.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:38PM (4 children)
Lo! Oft Soylentils will spout the most vulgar verbiage, but none so ignorant and misguided as this! Forsooth, my dear fellows, some times it is Robin stealing from the Duke of Nottingham. Which is something that just had to be done. He was a 1% er, after all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @05:31PM (3 children)
No. The Duke of Nottingham was the government.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @05:45PM (2 children)
Your next task is to draw the Venn diagrams for government and the elite under different systems such as Monarchy, Plutocracy, and Social Democracy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @08:22PM (1 child)
Your task is draw the Venn diagrams for who gets to elect the government under different systems such as Monarch, Plutocracy, and Democracy.
Oh? Under democracy it is the people and not the elites who elect the government? I guess the government in this case is responsible for betraying the people who get to elect it, unlike under other non-democratic forms of government.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @02:57AM
So, how do you propose we put a stop to the government betraying the people who get to elect it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @09:27PM (1 child)
So you don't think there is an important difference between giving welfare to rich and giving welfare to sick and poor...?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @07:01AM
It really doesn't matter to the guy who is paying if the politician is using his tax money to pay for his nephews CEO position at Cancer Research, or his daughters position on the board of Foxcon.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @10:42PM
The money would be better spent on basic income. Remember, Foxconn is really into killing jobs with automation. Any jobs created as a result of the Wisconsin deal will last exactly as long as contractually required. Once they've met their obligations and collected the handouts the layoffs will begin.
Foxconn replaces 60,000 factory workers with robots
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966 [bbc.com]
iPhone manufacturer Foxconn plans to replace almost every human worker with robots
https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/30/14128870/foxconn-robots-automation-apple-iphone-china-manufacturing [theverge.com]