The Milwaukee Post

Dubai International Airport is the largest and busiest in the world. The Foxconn campus in Racine County will be bigger than that airport's property. Of all the eye-popping numbers associated with Foxconn, that one jumps out the most. But then there's this one: The Foxconn plant will be five times larger than the mam- moth Boeing assembly plant in Everett, Wash. Five times! The partisan squawking over Foxconn has distracted attention from the biggest part of the story. Foxconn's scope is so enormous that southeast Wisconsin will never be the same. Media hand-wringers and Democrats upset that Scott Walker has pulled off another Wisconsin coup keep whining that the company might not create all of the 13,000 jobs that have been discussed. My prediction: They'll create more than that. One of my listeners, an executive with Microsoft, was at Foxconn's facility in Tianjin, China last week. It is one of Foxconn's smaller Chinese plants. It "only" employs 30,000 people. If Foxconn indeed employs 13,000 in Wisconn Valley (get used to the name; it's going to stick), it will be one of the tiniest facilities the firm operates. And, there is no reason to believe Foxconn is thinking small here. My Microsoft listener tells me when he spoke with Foxconn employees in Tianjin, they all knew about the Wisconsin project. The listener says it is apparent to him that Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou is making the Wisconsin operation a very big deal within the company. This explains why Gou and Foxconn's parent were willing to put up a staggering $500 million in escrow money to guarantee the plant will indeed remain open. Gou would not put his com- pany or himself on the hook for that type of money unless their plans were to make Wisconsin a central focus of the entire company. Actions speak louder than words. Foxconn's actions indicate that a mammoth facility in southeastern Wisconsin is a certainty. Some are worried that Foxconn will operate a largely automated plant. That, in fact, is true. The point that is missed is that this project is so enormous they will need at least 13,000 people to run a facility that is heavily automated. Foxconn is so huge that it employs a staggeringly large workforce necessary to staff a company that has essentially cornered the interna- tional market on high-tech component manufacturing. Read this paragraph slowly. Foxconn's current workforce, mostly in China, is now 1.3 million people. That means the Racine facility would account for 1 percent of the company's total head count! Yet Foxconn is using Racine to manufacture the cutting- edge super-high definition video screens likely to be used on every important video monitor on the planet. Even if the panels are assembled by robots, the staff neces- sary to run an operation like this has to, by definition, be enormous. Foxconn is one of the world leaders in automation yet it still has 1.3 million workers. But the impact of Foxconn in Wisconsin goes well beyond the job count. Some pre- dictions: 1. The gap between the cities of Racine and Burlington will eventually be essen- tially filled in with development. 2. As many as 20 new hotels will be built in Racine and Kenosha counties and that number may be very low. 3. Mitchell International Airport will become truly international and will com- pete with O'Hare for nonstop flights from Shanghai, Beijing and perhaps Tokyo. 4. There will be an enormous boom in home and commercial construction with at least 5,000 new home starts in the adja- cent counties over the next five years. More than half of these will be in north- ern Kenosha County. 5. The current Wisconsin worker short- age combined with the need for thousands of construction workers will bring 20,000 new residents to the area. At least 2,500 Chinese will seek temporary or permanent visas to relocate here. 6. The Foxconn plant will only be the beginning. Two other major tech compa- nies will announce plans to build major facilities in southeastern Wisconsin. High- tech manufacturing will become the fastest-growing portion of the American economy and it will be centered here. 7. Mount Pleasant will incorporate as a city to avoid annexation pushes by Racine and other municipalities. The first manifestation of the transfor- mative boom we will experience will come with the beginning of construction. In the same way that fracking has created boom towns in the Dakotas, the influx of con- struction workers from throughout the Midwest will create an unexpected spend- ing surge in the local economy. This, com- bined with the purchase and transporta- tion of materials, will create a huge posi- tive and immediate jolt in the local econo- my. The Foxconn adventure is now start- ing. Our part of the world will never be the same. (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post. Send your personal correspondences to Mark Belling at Clear Channel Communications, c/o WISN, 12100 W. Howard Ave., Greenfield, WI 53228). 8 • Milwaukee County Post • November 17, 2017 MARK BELLING OPINION Last week's question What do you think of the shooting at the Sutherland Springs,Texas church? Or, what do you think of the budget passed by the County Board this week? (Choose one.) Sutherland Springs,Texas, it's just like what happened in Oak Creek at the Sikh temple. Why are places of God being targeted? Pretty soon the minister in Texas is going to have to carry a gun. And I don't think that God approves of that — just like He didn't want what happened at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek. It should not happen in a place of God. — Tommy Sukkert South Milwaukee This week's question There's a state bill that would lower the drinking age from 21 to 19. Is it a good idea or a bad one? Or, do you participate in Black Friday shopping like you used to or are you buying online more, or just buying less? Is there a seasonal tradition that your family contin- ues? (Choose one question.) Editor's note: When responding to the Question of the Week, please include your full name with spelling, phone number and city where you live. Phone numbers will not be published. Anonymous responses are no longer accepted by the publication. Call 744- 6370, Ext. 15 and leave a brief answer. Readers may also send an email with a brief answer to: dmuck@conleynet.com. Question of the week Owen Robinson misses true picture To the editor: Remember the reference in Matthew's Gospel to those who strain at gnats but swallow camels? Owen Robinson's Nov. 3 column was a classic example. Robinson rambled on at length about a presidential aide from 75 years ago, then referred to half-baked allegations about a former president and a defeated presiden- tial candidate, all regarding their interac- tions with Russia. Yet he somehow failed to mention the current president, Donald Trump. Since Robinson's column appeared, we have seen more revelations regarding Trump's son communicating with WikiLeaks, the website that has served as a transmission belt for Russian disinforma- tion. But long before Robinson wrote his column, we learned how "Junior" met with Russians hoping to get information to use in his father's campaign. David Ignatius, a foreign affairs colum- nist for the Washington Post, has written about "Trump's fascination, bordering with obsession, with Russian business deals." He wrote that "Trump has been hun- gry for Russia projects for more than three decades and has courted a stream of investors from the former Soviet Union. Trump's claim he had 'nothing to do with Russia' over the years is nonsense." As for the uranium deal that Robinson discussed, the Washington Post's fact- checker has written that "there is no evi- dence (Hillary) Clinton was informed about this deal," which in any event "does not actually result in the removal of uranium in the U.S." And if this 2010 deal was so important, how come Republicans in Congress didn't make a big fuss about it until now? Maybe they could have staged one less Benghazi investigation to check it out. Bill Kurtz South Milwaukee LETTERS TO THE EDITOR STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE Foxconn will be even bigger than you think

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