Two years in, Foxconn is a flop
The two-year anniversary of the signing of the Foxconn contract will arrive on November 17th
so before media turns their attention to Thanksgiving recipes, holidays sales and winter weather forecasts I thought it would be a good idea now to track and memorialize a key constant thread in the Foxconn story:
Promises - - broken, altered or not yet fulfilled - - after being spun-up and couched in the blighted language of campaign-friendly public relations, hyperbole, exaggeration and fantasy.
Here are a few examples in a list not meant to be complete, and that are organized in no particular order, but which use actual spoken words and numbers to help us remember who's responsible for how we got here and why there's little cause for optimism.
* Let me begin with the reporting Thursday that Foxconn would not be opening its promised "Innovation Center" in Green Bay, while similar centers around the state may never open that were vaguely defined and virtually unstaffed.
Much of the reaction to these announcements fell into the category of 'and are you surprised?'
Because Wisconsinites have to come to see Foxconn as FUBAR.
* But let's back up a little and see how hyperbole, spin and sheer fantasy were used to promote the project from Day One.
Donald Trump initially called the project "The Eighth Wonder of the World" before a shovel full of dirt had been turned.
But it wasn't only The Great Condo Pitchman who raised expectations to these faux, fantastical levels.
* Walker himself, as if competing with Trump for air time, boxed quotes and top-line space also went rhetorically overboard, no doubt to fuel his doomed re-election bid and to make people forget that his previous campaigns' job-creation promises and economic development performance had flopped.
You remember, his repetitive pledges to create the gaudy round number of 250,000 new jobs in four years, but which took all of eight years to fulfill?
A made-up number he further manipulated as "my floor, not my ceiling."
So Walker also stitched together strings of glossy adjectives at the White House Foxconn announcement to make everyone forget what happened to his earlier jobs creation shortfall.
* Look to his unedited remarks accessible at the "Walker" text and speaker tabs at this official White House link, here.
Walker labels the entire affair with fresh buzz wordy construction - - "a new ecosystem" - - but irony is alive because we would find out that the authentic ecosystem on the project site would soon go through wetland-filling, prime ag land bulldozing and massive polluting stormwater runoff to which downstream communities in Illinois are objecting.
And Walker went global when he and Foxconn officials later signed the deal that implemented the sweetheart legislation.
* Hiring in 2019 and 2020 are also projected to fall short of earlier company estimates.
* I haven't seen data on how Foxconn is doing on a separate promise to hire 3,000 military veterans, but I did note that the very first hire the company had made was a vet who has already resigned.
Here are a few more questions:
* How's that hugely-hyped $100 million pledge to the UW-Madison coming? It's less than one-percent funded.
* Or that space-age multi-story data center to be built on the Mt. Pleasant site cleared of all the 'blighted' farmland homes?
* And the various types and sizes of flat-screen LCD panels which needed all that diverted Lake Michigan water to produce?
Let's just say all those things are on-again-off-again-on-again, or something.
* Or what about the special, futuristic special lanes in the fast-tracked I-94 expansion serving the project site so driverless trucks can deliver flat-screen whatevers by 2021 to Mitchell International Airport?
While some infrastructure elements are said to in the ground, but look at all these caveats and time-line potholes:
You get the point. Promises made, expectations raised, reality bites and promises break. Lots of hype. Little follow-through. We'll get back to you in 2020, or 2021, or 2047.
Wisconsin taxpayers have been conditioned by the company and its shills to expect more disappointment, continuing under-performance and, like Walker's 250,000 jobs' pledge in a four-year term - - failure.
Which makes you realize that the blight that was said to be associated with the Foxconn project had nothing to do with the properties that were bulldozed, and had everything to do with the way officials used state power to bulldoze the language and bury truth.
In a transformational, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
so before media turns their attention to Thanksgiving recipes, holidays sales and winter weather forecasts I thought it would be a good idea now to track and memorialize a key constant thread in the Foxconn story:
Promises - - broken, altered or not yet fulfilled - - after being spun-up and couched in the blighted language of campaign-friendly public relations, hyperbole, exaggeration and fantasy.
Here are a few examples in a list not meant to be complete, and that are organized in no particular order, but which use actual spoken words and numbers to help us remember who's responsible for how we got here and why there's little cause for optimism.
* Let me begin with the reporting Thursday that Foxconn would not be opening its promised "Innovation Center" in Green Bay, while similar centers around the state may never open that were vaguely defined and virtually unstaffed.
Much of the reaction to these announcements fell into the category of 'and are you surprised?'
Because Wisconsinites have to come to see Foxconn as FUBAR.
* But let's back up a little and see how hyperbole, spin and sheer fantasy were used to promote the project from Day One.
Donald Trump initially called the project "The Eighth Wonder of the World" before a shovel full of dirt had been turned.
But it wasn't only The Great Condo Pitchman who raised expectations to these faux, fantastical levels.
* Walker himself, as if competing with Trump for air time, boxed quotes and top-line space also went rhetorically overboard, no doubt to fuel his doomed re-election bid and to make people forget that his previous campaigns' job-creation promises and economic development performance had flopped.
You remember, his repetitive pledges to create the gaudy round number of 250,000 new jobs in four years, but which took all of eight years to fulfill?
A made-up number he further manipulated as "my floor, not my ceiling."
So Walker also stitched together strings of glossy adjectives at the White House Foxconn announcement to make everyone forget what happened to his earlier jobs creation shortfall.
* Look to his unedited remarks accessible at the "Walker" text and speaker tabs at this official White House link, here.
...THIS IS A GREAT DAY FOR AMERICA. IT IS A GREAT DAY FOR WISCONSIN AND IT'S A GREAT DAY FOR FOXCONN. [ APPLAUSE ] TODAY WE'RE ANNOUNCING THE SINGLE LARGEST ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN THE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF WISCONSIN AND ONE OF THE LARGEST IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY. [ APPLAUSE ]...
THESE 13,000 JOBS HAVE AN AVERAGE ANNUAL SALARY OF OVER $53,000 PLUS BENEFITS. IN ADDITION -- [ APPLAUSE ] >>.... FOXCOMM WILL BUILD THE FIRST FACILITY IN THE UNITED STATES THAT WILL BUILD LCD PANELS FOR EVERYTHING FROM THE AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS TO HEALTH CARE TO ENTERTAINMENT AND ALL TRIESY INDUSTRIES COMBINED. GOING FORWARD, I WANT ALL OF YOU TO KNOW, BUT PARTICULARLY THE PRESIDENT TO KNOW THAT THESE PANELS WILL BE MADE IN AMERICA PROUDLY IN THE STATE OF WISCONSIN. [ APPLAUSE ] >> FOXCOM M's NEW ECHO SYSTEM WILL TRANSFORM WISCONSIN. IN FACT, TERRY AND I CAME UP WITH A NAME. WE CALL IT WOISCONN VALLEY. THE REGION WE WILL CALL WISCONN VALLEY WILL BECOME THE NEW LEADING EDGE FOR TECHNOLOGY.And Walker wasn't done, affixing his name to an amped-up op-ed in the Journal Sentinel a few days after signing the bill which he and his lieutenants shepherded through the Legislature to shovel nearly $3 billion in state funds to Foxconn (triggering also the outflow from local treasuries of another $1 billion plus):
Foxconn is a transformational, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for WisconsinIn addition to repeating the 13,000 jobs' pledge, the first-person op-ed used the words "massive," "outstanding," "big," "largest," (twice), "biggest," "transformational," (three more times), and "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," (again).
Walker labels the entire affair with fresh buzz wordy construction - - "a new ecosystem" - - but irony is alive because we would find out that the authentic ecosystem on the project site would soon go through wetland-filling, prime ag land bulldozing and massive polluting stormwater runoff to which downstream communities in Illinois are objecting.
And Walker went global when he and Foxconn officials later signed the deal that implemented the sweetheart legislation.
"We're going to take the world over when it comes to high-tech technology like we're going to build ...right here in the state of Wisconsin," he said* But wait, there's more, because Walker bumped up the jobs pledge to "at least 13,000" in a July, 2018 tweet accompanied by video of those now disappearing 'innovation centers.'
Wisconsin landed Foxconn – and with it comes at least 13,000 good-paying, family-supporting jobs throughout the state!* So where are we now, employment-wise? In 2018, the company created 178 full-time jobs.
* Hiring in 2019 and 2020 are also projected to fall short of earlier company estimates.
* I haven't seen data on how Foxconn is doing on a separate promise to hire 3,000 military veterans, but I did note that the very first hire the company had made was a vet who has already resigned.
Here are a few more questions:
* How's that hugely-hyped $100 million pledge to the UW-Madison coming? It's less than one-percent funded.
* Or that space-age multi-story data center to be built on the Mt. Pleasant site cleared of all the 'blighted' farmland homes?
* And the various types and sizes of flat-screen LCD panels which needed all that diverted Lake Michigan water to produce?
Let's just say all those things are on-again-off-again-on-again, or something.
* Or what about the special, futuristic special lanes in the fast-tracked I-94 expansion serving the project site so driverless trucks can deliver flat-screen whatevers by 2021 to Mitchell International Airport?
While some infrastructure elements are said to in the ground, but look at all these caveats and time-line potholes:
A Wisconsin DOT spokesman said his agency can’t say what types of new driving innovations will be in place when all eight lanes of I-94 open by Memorial Day 2020 or when work is finished in 2021....
In a statement, Foxconn did not provide specific timelines for the use of autonomous vehicles.Sound familiar?
You get the point. Promises made, expectations raised, reality bites and promises break. Lots of hype. Little follow-through. We'll get back to you in 2020, or 2021, or 2047.
Wisconsin taxpayers have been conditioned by the company and its shills to expect more disappointment, continuing under-performance and, like Walker's 250,000 jobs' pledge in a four-year term - - failure.
Which makes you realize that the blight that was said to be associated with the Foxconn project had nothing to do with the properties that were bulldozed, and had everything to do with the way officials used state power to bulldoze the language and bury truth.
In a transformational, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
1 comment:
If republicans could have just wanked the taxpayers for another coupla billion to spread around, all that grease might have gotten something done!
Meantime the Fauxcon just festers and ripens. Slowly.
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