Shouldn’t job creation programs create jobs? Unless we misunderstand the whole point, we think so.
So why is it that all these great big announcements of new jobs coming from various megadeals around the state don’t seem to be, you know, actually creating jobs?
Something is fishy here, and we’re not just talking about lake food.
Here are Five Fast Facts on job creation deals that don’t create jobs in MI:
- 💨 Fizzle For Your Buck - Under Gov. Whitmer, Michigan has spent over $1 billion in incentives and pledged $15 billion more to secure around 12,000 EV-related jobs and boost the state’s economy. So far, a whopping 200 jobs have been created. *insert hand fart noise here*
- 🚙 The Big Culprits - About half of the money MI has spent has gone to just five companies: Ford, GM, LG Energy Solution, Gotion, and Our Next Energy. It’s supposed to be for EV battery production or other factory expansions. Emphasis on the “supposed to,” of course.
- ⛰️ Uphill Battle - To be fair, a lot of the problem is probably because no one wants EVs. But that’s sure not stopping the government from insisting, is it? Nah, because GREEN DAMMIT.
- 🤯 Just Kidding - Here are some examples. The state spent at least $70 million for land for two gigafactories that weren’t officially disclosed. A startup called Our Next Energy got $78 million for a new factory with 2100 jobs, but has delivered just 50 and is doing layoffs. Such great success, right?
- 🤮 Politicians Being Politicians - We’ve talked about this before. Politicians want to be loved and get votes, but they have a tendency to, ah, overlook teeny tiny details like, you know, actually delivering on their promises. It would be very simple to add some performance requirements into these deals, but that would probably involve icky things like admitting failure.
🔥Bottom line: Remember, all these huge incentives and deals used to get splashy headlines are done using your tax dollars. It’s bad enough that they take so much out of our Paychecks already, the least they could do is not waste so damn much of it!
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