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Hundreds of millions were spent on variously infra improvements, eminent-domaining people out of the way, lawyers, etc. This is potentially wasted money, but i

Hundreds of millions were spent on variously infra improvements, eminent-domaining people out of the way, lawyers, etc. This is potentially wasted money, but it did not go to Foxconn, and presumably created infrastructure jobs. Not defending the deal, but it is often mischaracterized. The benefits to the companies usually are tax rebates that are only valuable if the company makes real investments that are taxable. They are not direct payments.

_jal 6y ago
Purpose-built infra is almost always wasted if the purpose is unfulfilled; sure, maybe someone else can find a way to use it, but it was built to do things nobody needed. > and presumably created infrastructure jobs Usually you hear people complain about dig-a-hole-then-fill-it-up jobs. But if we're going to start supporting those, it would be best not to tie them to scams, I think.
- bohadi 6y ago
  > and presumably created infrastructure jobs Yeah. Sounds a lot like the dig-up-all-the-carbon-burn-then-bury-it-again civilizational project going on the past 100, and next 100 years. What exactly was the purpose to "re-arranging small bits of matter near the surface of the earth" again? [1] Basically I wanted to make a comment about greedy exploitation-exploration trade-off strategies here but will stop short at this kind of eliptical passing remark. [1] paraphrasing Russell in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Idleness_and_Other_Essays https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Idleness_and_Othe... it is appropriate given current moment
  - imtringued 6y ago
    >What exactly was the purpose to "re-arranging small bits of matter near the surface of the earth" again? From the same man that proposed the idea of "re-arranging small bits of matter near the surface of the earth". >It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing. It's a social hack to get around idiotic situations. It's like moving to mars because you are worried about a nuclear war or climate change. Dumb games require dumb players.
imtringued 6y ago
>This is potentially wasted money, but it did not go to Foxconn, and presumably created infrastructure jobs. If Foxconn tricked a local government into providing free "useful" infrastructure it could just rent that "useful" infrastructure out to a different company and thus capture the entire tax benefit. However, they didn't even do that... The money was fully wasted.

_jal 6y ago

Purpose-built infra is almost always wasted if the purpose is unfulfilled; sure, maybe someone else can find a way to use it, but it was built to do things nobody needed. > and presumably created infrastructure jobs Usually you hear people complain about dig-a-hole-then-fill-it-up jobs. But if we're going to start supporting those, it would be best not to tie them to scams, I think.

bohadi 6y ago
> and presumably created infrastructure jobs Yeah. Sounds a lot like the dig-up-all-the-carbon-burn-then-bury-it-again civilizational project going on the past 100, and next 100 years. What exactly was the purpose to "re-arranging small bits of matter near the surface of the earth" again? [1] Basically I wanted to make a comment about greedy exploitation-exploration trade-off strategies here but will stop short at this kind of eliptical passing remark. [1] paraphrasing Russell in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Idleness_and_Other_Essays https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Idleness_and_Othe... it is appropriate given current moment
- imtringued 6y ago
  >What exactly was the purpose to "re-arranging small bits of matter near the surface of the earth" again? From the same man that proposed the idea of "re-arranging small bits of matter near the surface of the earth". >It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing. It's a social hack to get around idiotic situations. It's like moving to mars because you are worried about a nuclear war or climate change. Dumb games require dumb players.

imtringued 6y ago

>This is potentially wasted money, but it did not go to Foxconn, and presumably created infrastructure jobs. If Foxconn tricked a local government into providing free "useful" infrastructure it could just rent that "useful" infrastructure out to a different company and thus capture the entire tax benefit. However, they didn't even do that... The money was fully wasted.