What a sucker of a governor. "But all the other subsidies, worth more than $1 billion, will be paid regardless of money invested or jobs created."
(See also: most stadium deals.)
(See also: most stadium deals.)
The main problem here, (and it's frustrating), but the main problem is that due to the way the system is structured, we can do nothing about all the corruption. I don't like always being on the national news because of the latest governmental thuggery, neither does anyone among my family and friends. (And I was born and raised in small town Wisconsin.) There's just so little the average person can do, so you just sit in Markesan, or Racine, or Independence, or LaCrosse or wherever and you just stew in your anger.
Then it even gets thrown in your face on Hacker News.
Can you be more specific about what you mean by "corruption" in this instance? Repeatedly pointing to a faceless "corruption" de-focuses the conversation from the specific issues with this deal, including the magnitude of the subsidy, and what might be the lack of recourse for WI residents against Foxconn.
Is it to suggest that Gov. Walker had expected, or at least decided it was acceptable if Foxconn significantly altered their plan in a way that undermined the deal, in return for a short term political "win".
If not, then what is the "corruption" you are referring to in this situation? Weren't the terms of the deal, including the latitude it offered the parties, fully public?
> The difference is that in Wisconsin we ... have mass protests.
Wisconsin is not the only place that has protests over corruption and mismanagement. It's a common occurrence, especially at the local level, in many places.
Or if he is corrupt (as in he knew that it was a raw deal for WI but carries forward for personal benefit), can he be a sucker?
In this instance, is it possible he was both corrupt and a sucker? Maybe so if he was playing WI residents while getting played by Foxconn? Not drawing conclusions here but trying to play out the implications of what others have stated here.
Well, yeah, there's that.
I guess I didn't even go into that stuff in my post on Wisconsin's corruption. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18329653)
But really there's so much out and out criminal behavior that goes on here that I really don't think something like a really bad Foxconn deal should be entirely unexpected.
If there's an opportunity to spend, 1 billion, 2 billion, 4 billion whatever in state tax dollars...
I mean, yeah, in a place like Wisconsin, you have to pretty much expect that there are going to be some irregularities. It's just how things are done here.