alt Hacker NewsMichigan spent $1.8B and only created 602 jobs
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> A new report suggests the state of Michigan is the latest to learn that lesson the hard way.
There doesn’t seem to be any lesson-learning happening, since governments keep trying this despite the outcome always being the same.
Originally on reason.com: https://reason.com/2026/06/26/michigan-spent-1-8-billion-and...
> Hohman examined eight major projects—"those that offered $100 million in payments and received significant media attention"—totaling $2.7 billion in promised incentives
> All told, the governor said that her major subsidy projects would create 20,595 jobs in Michigan
Even using these numbers that works out to $135k/job, which is bonkers!
This looks like Michigan transferred actual cash. Not tax abatements on new projects.
Two things 1) we dont know if the state might have lost more jobs if these incentives weren't provided 2) the deeper issue is that the auto makers compete with state backed companies in other regions
I'm not saying we need to copy state backed but the climate is desperate
It works in China as there absolute experts Work in government , whereas in Europe government employees are typically not competitive in free market
Michigan has relatively business-unfriendly laws and regulations.
Apparently their tax system is quite favorable to businesses, but taxes are only one (small) part of the equation. The taxes matter more once a company is making a lot of money.
In short, tax incentives and random per company “investments” (bribes?) are not enough to offset certain laws and regulations Michigan has.
I am not saying those laws and regulations are bad. I am just saying that targeted tax incentives and investment for specific companies are the wrong way to solve the problem.
did they, like, not lose a million jobs tho?
Democrats are structurally incompetent. I've never seen them use tax dollars in a fiscally responsible way. I was always a registered democrat, but their complete incompetence and lack of efficiency has really turned me away from them. I don't trust them to spend money effectively or wisely. In California we are taxed extensively but then spend hundreds of billions on trains that don't exist, homeless programs that clearly do nothing but make the problem worse, our roads are in shambles, and quality of life crimes are all but completely ignored. Every state where democrats are in majority seems to be poorly managed.
The money spent on site and land clearing results in a big empty field? Yes, yes it did, that’s what those words mean. If we’re going to bribe companies to do a thing, we should at least accept when they did do it.
That works out to 2.5 million per job.
This is not the first time this type of thing happened almost looks like a laundering scam. Companies that do this should face real and very expensive consequences. But we know that will never happen.
“Click to continue reading”
No thanks
Claiming the state “spent” money when it’s something like a tax incentive is completely disingenuous bullshit. This article does this in spades to come up with this huge billion dollar figure.
“We won’t collect additional property taxes on this new thing you’re building for 10 years” is not the same thing as spending money. If a business doesn’t start there instead you don’t get any money at all. So in both scenarios you get no tax revenue but without the business you hurt your own economy.
It’s not taxpayer money being sent away. It’s tax collection policy and if we claim tax exemptions are spending money, then the government is also spending billions on non-profits and low income households.
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selectively giving away free money to big business is straight corruption. there is no other way to put it. everyone involved should lose re election and get investigated by the financial crimes unit.
but i dont think "leave it up to the market" is a better idea. investments like this just need to be transparent, open to everyone and set up strict punishment for stealing the money with prison for executives.
if they wanted to actually create jobs they would support small companies and set up open competitive programs based on project quality. or start a state investment bank giving super low interest loans so factories can expand without cutting profitable divisions like in china.