"Foxconn could hire people in the final weeks of the year, get tens of millions in subsidies, and be free to lay them off once the filing deadline passed"
"State and local governments spent at least $400 million, largely on land and infrastructure Foxconn will likely never need."
There are still some people here who think that either Foxconn is still ramping up, or that it's the current administration's fault, or that they're actually still hiring a bunch of people. I personally don't know a single person that's worked for Foxconn in the area, but I do know a few people in construction that either worked on the plant or on the infrastructure surrounding it.
The deal did have a stipulation with tax credits that Foxconn had to meet certain job numbers by specific dates or it had to pay them back. To my knowledge they have been paid. But yeah, as you pointed out that doesn't factor in the massive change to infrastructure.
Residents lost their homes in Mount Pleasant to make way for this debacle ffs.
The Reply-All podcast did a great episode covering the Mount Pleasant / Foxconn events at the time: