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Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

This is a take that's wildly generous to FoxConn, painting them as the "aww schucks" kinda honest guys that just didn't know about the challenges of the US labor market.

The alternate take is that the whole deal was made in bad faith and FoxConn was hoping to collect subsidies and line its pockets. This version of events has some precedent[1]. It's especially hard to believe that FoxConn didn't know about US labor when this same situation played out in Pennsylvania in 2013[2].

[1] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/foxconns-history-of-broken...

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-foxconns...

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You're 100% spot on. I cannot be convinced a multi-national mega-corp is ignorant of US labor and the challenges in the US labor market. There just is no way that's possible for a company this size, or am I wrong?

So that leaves either bad faith, or they are just abjectly incompetent. I can't really see any other options. Or, again, am I way off base?

> I cannot be convinced a multi-national mega-corp is ignorant of US labor and the challenges in the US labor market.

Especially one that is a specialist in harvesting laborers from all corners of the world. I can only imagine selecting the right labor force has to be their main competences.

I mean, it was bullshit from jump street, but if Wisconsin had poured (more) money into Foxconn's pockets, I'm sure they'd have been happy to put something up.

For the record, they have put something up. Currently 1 large empty buildings and 2 medium sized, filled buildings. Also one perplexing glass globe.

You know what's bad faith? Politicians bullshitting that these kind of factory jobs are ever going to come back.

My smartphone will never be assembled in the US or Germany.

I'm not saying it's economical, but anyone willing to pay 2.5x the cost of a Made-in-China phone could have their phone assembled in the United States: https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-usa/

(No relation to the company, though I did once have a very nice chat with Todd Weaver).

And to the larger point: I agree completely that politicians opening their mouths about jobs (and also about anything else, IMO) is bad faith bullshit.

It will never be assembled by humans in the US, but we should strive for US based robotic manufacturing.

This is the key people often overlook. If we stop using our AI geniuses to develop tracking algorithms and start building automation, we can have nextgen factories in the West. The environmental factor is yet to be solved though. For the most part, developing countries are trading environmental damage for money. Not much different from harvesting oil or other resources to an economist.

Physical manufacturing doesn't have the sort of profit margins that software provides. You can't give devs the kind of pay many expect when there are 10x more people in the production chain. Investors aren't going to flock to such businesses.

Inverstors are very short sighted. I am advocating for a 100 years plan. You can't expect a bunch of greedy boys to plan for returns after they are dead....

Well let’s see, work in adtech and make $1M TC and get treated with kid gloves by the company or work in industrial engineering and make $100K and be a cost center. How do we change the incentives? Ban advertising and tracking? But making the alternative more attractive is out of the cards...

I know and I agree. It's hard. But don't tempt me on banning ads! :P

If you look from the outside, as a society we are using a lot of our best brains for very frivolous things. I wish for a more efficient way of using our minds!

It's not unprecedented that someone who should know better, and has the best advisors in town, is blinded by their preconceptions about a country and its people. It's lost us a few wars.

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