> But stupid doesn’t become less stupid because it was dumb for the right reasons.

I think you misunderstood my post.

I wasn't saying that what they did wasn't stupid. It was. The post I was replying to implied the following in a condescending way:

1) the poster is not "simple" enough to be conned by a massive corporation

2) all people living in rural areas are "simple"

3) all people living in rural areas should know that they are simple and never aspire to anything that we big-city people do because it is beyond their cognitive abilities

4) doing something that will probably fail (trusting Foxconn, in this case) is never a rational decision

Regarding #4, it's easy to say that Foxconn is 100% untrustworthy, but we all know that mostly in hindsight. Even if they had a 1% chance of coming through, a region with a dying economy might actually be rational to throw away an enormous amount of money. If it's their only hope, it would be rational to throw away all of their money.

> people living in rural areas should know that they are simple

Countermeasures to this stereotype can be equally damaging. It may have played into Foxconn’s advantage here.

“We don’t need an expensive coastal banker telling us what to do” is reasonable if everyone is out to screw small timers.

> a region with a dying economy might actually be rational to throw away an enormous amount of money

This wasn’t money they had. It was taxpayers’ future money. Money that could have financed education or infrastructure or a move to another city. This mindset is only rational if staying in place has infinite utility, not only for the region’s present residents, but its future ones too.

Just to jump in here to add some additional comments:

* Mount Pleasant WI is not rural (city-data.com says 95% urban). It lies on I94 just 1hr 15min from Chicago and 30min from Milwaukee. * I doubt Mount Pleasant WI is dying.

If I remember, the deal was pretty opaque and many details were murky. I find it more likely the local officials were incentivized somehow as opposed to sheer incompetence.

Additionally, it should be noted that the WI governor (Scott Walker) who orchestrated this deal lost his re-election bid shortly after this. While there was always uncertainty about Foxconn actually following through, the lack of Walker (and thus probably Trump) basically sealed the deal.

> Mount Pleasant WI is not rural

I think you're right. I was responding to someone saying they are "country" people.

> I doubt Mount Pleasant WI is dying.

Milwaukee's metro area (which includes Mount Pleasant and Racine, the places most closely tied to Foxconn's scam) has seen a massive decline in manufacturing:

> "The Great Recession hit Milwaukee’s manufacturing industry especially hard, and the city continues to have discomfiting employment statistics..."[1].

Broad economic numbers aren't great for Racine County as far as I can tell. They're worse than the US overall. Even if they were great, we know from examples across the US that declining blue-collar jobs may be especially painful for the non-urban electorate -- people who influence the local officials who believe the wishful nonsense Foxconn peddles.

> "'This area desperately needs the investment. There's nothing here anymore,' said Tom Johnston, a 54-year-old veteran of [Racine's] once-vaunted manufacturing sector."[2]

1. https://www.badgerinstitute.org/Reports/2013/A-Fresh-Take-on...

2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/as-the-economy-teete...

Oh, I agree with your post and appreciate you adding real substance to this thread. I'd say the area's in "decline" as opposed to "dying" but that may be splitting hairs. I do think "dying" implies that there's no hope for revival. Like it's some remote coal town that lives or dies by that single industry. Sure yeah, the manufacturing industry is not doing well here and Racine has fared particularly poorly. That made Mount Pleasant vulnerable to Foxconn but is only one part of the story. There's a lot of political nuance when it comes to Wisconsin and Milwaukee. This deal wasn't getting done without the state government backing it no matter how naive or desperate one municipality was. My point is that it's far more likely corruption or even just normal political incentives drove this deal as opposed to stupidity.

Milwaukee is dying. The suburbs around it are suffering as well.

That's shame, looks like a really nice city otherwise.

"dying" is hyperbole. The manufacturing sector has been on decline for 40 years but other sectors are starting to build up. The downtown core has seen a boom in revitalization, particularly these past 5 years. There's a push for tech and startups.

It's basically in the same metro area as Chicago. Would you say Chicago's dying? It may have declined (or not grown as fast as other US cities) lately but "dying" seems like hyperbole, no?

That's not that uncommon. We've had so many examples in Lithuania,which has less people than suburbs in New York,where some local functionaries thought that large US companies are nice and easy to deal with just to end up with the crappiest deals ever.Some were literally salivating from the fact that a few hot shots from the US will visit their god's forgotten town. One can build any experience, including dealing with multinationals, however it usually comes with very expensive lessons.

> They didn’t seem to hire best-in-class bankers nor lawyers.

Even if they had, is it likely that those people would have told them it wasn't a good deal? My sense is that everyone on the inside thought this was a sweetheart of a deal and were already counting their eggs. And if recent history is any guide, that group of people might very well be the least concerned about whether truth was being conveyed, or care to look deeper into the matter than their own pocketbooks.

The state government was a player in this as well. Foxconn was not the only people promising a golden goose.