Foxconn always planned WI plant as lower-skills hub

I'm not sure why Foxconn's intention to hire thousands of lower-skill workers for lower-tech-and-wage jobs in Wisconsin is worth the Sunday Journal Sentinel hard-copy banner.

On August 11th, I wrote:

WI now talking about < $15-per-hour Foxconn jobs

For the record:

Walker's initial Foxconn hype focused on new jobs averaging about $54,000 annually, but Wisconsin is now acknowledging it will subsidize those at the $30,000 level.

Assembly Republicans introduced revisions to the bill Friday. The new version retains the tax breaks but ties them to jobs created that pay at least $30,000 and exempts salaries over $100,000 from the calculations.

With 2,080 hours in a working year - - 40 hours x 52 weeks - - the subsidies to Foxconn will include jobs paying less than $15 per hour.

And aren't these the kind of jobs open to automation?

And will Foxconn be paid by Wisconsin taxpayers when these jobs are created, then robotized out of existence...?

One more thought: A financial calculator finds the average income needed for a family of four to live a "modest but adequate" lifestyle in Kenosha County is $81,457.

That posting was a follow-up to an August 7th analysis that made clear that Foxconn had somewhere other than SE WI in mind for a high-tech, R&D center:

WI now talking about < $15-per-hour Foxconn jobs

Chinese media and The Detroit News are reporting that Tawian-based Foxconn is eyeing a Michigan investment in driverless car, artificial intelligence and other high-tech fields.

As they say across the lake, Michigan is leading the way in driverless car tech...

So... it's worth asking in light of the Michigan-focused reports if states will be played off each other for Foxconn investments, and if Wisconsin is overpaying with its $3 billion incentive and water-rule bending package while Michigan has pledged $200 million, and whether artificial intelligence and driverless car technology have more lasting growth potential than flat screen television and other LCD panel manufacturing.

Final though, and as I've pointed out often, that the WI Foxconn plant is in GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos' district, and needs to attract thousands of lower-income workers who are less likely-to own cars to an area Vos has worked hard to strip of regional transit coordination and connections is just plain stupid.