Not much to say about the reporting by the Verge on the disaster that is FoxConn in Wisconsin. The picture presented in this article is of vaporware: no actual product plans were ever in place for anything in Wisconsin and the company has struggled since to come up with something.
Still, I do wish I could have raced some of those golf carts around the empty warehouse. That sounded fun.
The sad news is that politics continues to divide on reality. Empty buildings, nothing being manufactured, and an utter failure to even hire a minimum of 520 jobs (when the factory should be employing at least a 1000 now if it was legit; and it was expected to have 2080 employees at the end of 2019 on that path to 13,000) still does not matter to those who supported this project.
Terry Gou’s response continues to promise the world to the politicians who play ball with the company. At least good con men realize when the jig is up.
A billion dollars in land and infrastructure spending has been wasted on some empty buildings.
Update (29 Oct. 2020): Bruce Murphy runs down the actual costs of FoxConn: at least “$1.44 billion charged to the citizens of Wisconsin.” Yikes.
Wisconsin Unemployment 