Boots & Sabers

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0729, 06 Jun 18

Liberal Activists Organize Against Foxconn

From Matt Kittle at the MacIver Institute.

MADISON, Wis. – Left-wing activists committed to doing whatever it takes to stop Foxconn Technology Group’s massive manufacturing campus in southeast Wisconsin are planning to rain on the tech giant’s ground-breaking picnic.

Organizers held a conference call Sunday evening to talk about their plans for a rally and demonstration on June 28, the day Foxconn is scheduled to hold its ground-breaking ceremony on its proposed $10 billion plant in Mount Pleasant. MacIver News Service obtained the call-in information and covered the planning session.

The idea, organizers say, is to assemble a coalition of diverse progressive groups – from environmental organizations to civil rights leaders to Foxconn-hating politicians. While each group will bring its own social and environmental complaints to the table, they will all rally around their abhorrence of the Foxconn economic development plan, according to the coalition-building plan.

“We want to stop it in any way we can,” a coalition member told participants on the call. “If we can’t stop it, we want to give them bad publicity. We want to be able to, like, make them aware that the community is aware. We want to show that, ‘Hey, we’re not going to give you an easy fight here.” 

“Take a stand against Foxconn. For our fellow Wisconsinites, join the effort and help us SHUT FOXCONN DOWN,” a progressive coalition Facebook alert states.

The short-term goal is to stop Foxconn. The long-term mission is to fire up the liberal base to take out Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature that championed the largest development deal of its kind in U.S. history. 

Let’s think this through… the focus of these liberal activist groups doesn’t appear to be anything specific about Foxconn. In fact, they admit that they all have different issues that range from opposition to corporate welfare to generic environmental issues to… whatever. The driving force of organizing is political opposition to Scott Walker and an attempt to drive turnout for whichever Democrat wins the chance to challenge him.

So there you have it. Liberals in Wisconsin are organizing to try to blunt the greatest single economic development in Wisconsin in a generation for the purpose of ousting the governor who had the temerity to foster economic activity in the state. They don’t give a darn about all of the construction workers, landscapers, HVAC workers, quarry workers, truck drivers, etc. who will build the $10 billion facility – much less the thousands of future Wisconsin workers who will fill those jobs with an average wage of $53k.

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0729, 06 June 2018

9 Comments

  1. jjf

    Maybe Foxconn is opposed by people who believe in the free market, that government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers and using tax dollars to subsidize giant non-USA companies who already have lots of money and a long list of broken promises to other communities.

    Or, as you say, …  whatever.  What’s a few billion?  What’s “average”?  What’s “median”?  Who knows!  Who cares!

    What’s this “eminent domain” carping?

    Whatever!

     

  2. MjM

    Maybe Foxconn is opposed by people who believe in the free market

    HA! HA! HA!  Good one!

  3. Kevin Scheunemann

    A leftist for a free market?

    That is hilarious.

  4. dad29

    Don’t think for ONE MINUTE that Archer-Daniels-Midland, Monsanto, or any of the Big Pharma outfits are in favor of “free markets,” either.  They like monopoly, but will settle for oligopoly–and then they will purchase the regulations that best suit their needs.

    That said, the Left’s opposition to employment for 10,000++ US citizens is suicidal, so let them go!!  This is like watching the NeverTrumpers carp about “where’s Melania” stupidity.   The ‘blue wave’ is going to be a ‘blue drop’ with their antics.

  5. MHMaley

    10,000 jobs divided by $3 Billion . That’s a deal that other states walked away from .

    Only time will tell . But on its face , it looks like a desperate administration who couldn’t hit the job #’s they promised in one term , not 2 .

  6. jjf

    Roughly 3 million employed in Wisconsin, and you want to bet billions on 10,000 jobs?  And grab four square miles of private property?

  7. Le Roi du Nord

    Could be Foxconn is just another thinly veiled campaign contribution scam just like the $700K walker got out of G-Tac. I know a lot of folks up here in the north that don’t see any benefit at all from Foxconn, but do see the liabilities it places on future generations of WI residents.

  8. MjM

    MHM:  10,000 jobs divided by $3 Billion .

    and…

    JFF: you want to bet billions on 10,000 jobs?

    Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.

    According to MMAC…

    Based on a $10 billion capital investment, the project would create over 10,200 new jobs for prime and sub-contractors and equipment suppliers; over 1,700 jobs for suppliers and another 4,200 jobs that would result from new household expenditures — a total of over 16,200 jobs with $3.6 billion in labor income over the four-year construction period,

    If Foxconn employment reaches 13,000, the EY analysis projects over 11,400 jobs among suppliers. The household spending from those direct and indirect jobs would produce another 10,800 jobs. The total ongoing job impact could reach over 35,200 and total annual labor income of $2 billion…

    a $10 billion Foxconn investment with 13,000 jobs could have a cumulative impact of $78 billion to Wisconsin’s gross domestic product over 15 years.

  9. jjf

    I assume there must be a fair-and-balanced MMAC report where they put the negatives on the scale, too.

    All the subsidies, all the deferred or eliminated taxes, all the new public spending, all the infrastructure costs, the eminent domain seizures.

    (You can’t take my guns!  But now it’s a great WisGOP idea to take my house and land that’s worth 10,000 times more than my gun collection!  But they’re being paid!  But you can’t buy-back my AR-15 because I need it to fight against government tyrrany!)

    A breakdown of the contractors, showing the value of their contracts and where they are located and where their workers pay taxes.  A breakdown of the jobs Foxconn claims they’ll create, you know, sorted into bins so we can see how many jobs are at the lowest end and how many are at the high end, and where those workers will pay taxes, because we’re smart enough to know the way that press releases that use the term “average” even very loosely can mislead.

    And a good explanation of the teeth of the agreement, too…  because the government is so smart about business agreements, right, they’ll certainly put some teeth or clawbacks in the agreement so the public isn’t at risk, right?

    Isn’t this one of those moments where Dad29 starts ranting about CHICOM?

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