Foxconn told Wisconsin it would build displays with hi-tech Generation 10.5 glass (large light-blue rectangle). It's actually building with low-tech Generation 6 glass (dark-blue rectangle), 27% of the size of Generation 10.5.

That Foxconn plant that Donald Trump touted last week? It turns out that it’s going to be way smaller and lower-tech than what Foxconn contracted with Wisconsin. Instead of using Generation 10.5 glass, it’s using Generation 6.

Generation 10.5 glass is the state of the art for making large display panels. The world’s first Generation 10.5 plant is in (you guessed it) in China, and opened only last year. It can process glass substrates up to 3370 by 2940 millimeters, good for making large (and profitable) displays efficiently, such as 65” and 75” displays.

Generation 6 glass? Not so good. That’s circa-2003 technology, only 1800 by 1500 millimeters, 27% of the size of Generation 10.5. Generation 6 is OK for lower-margin, lower-tech displays, which Foxconn evidently thinks those poor, poor Wisconsinites might be able to build. A 39” display is about as big as you can get efficiently from Generation 6. This is the trailing-edge technology that Donald Trump hilariously called “the eighth wonder of the world” while he was in Wisconsin sucking up to Foxconn and badmouthing US manufacturers.

And Wisconsin taxpayers? They’re forking over $4.5 billion to Foxconn, for what Foxconn now guarantees will be only 3,000 jobs, and not necessarily the 13,000 jobs it was talking about earlier. Surprise! That’s $1.5 million of state subsidies for every job, for the seemingly few Wisconsin Republicans who can do arithmetic. And those big, profitable displays from Generation 10.5 glass? Foxconn will build them in China or some other foreign location. And maybe they’ll eventually build them in Wisconsin too, years from now when Generation 10.5 is no longer a leading-edge technology — if Wisconsin plays nice.

Hey Wisconsin! How about giving your scarce government subsidies to somebody other than $100-billion foreign companies that are ripping you off? Maybe to some of those high-tech spinoffs you’re getting from the University of Wisconsin? Oh wait — there aren’t that many spinoffs because UW still hasn’t recovered from its savage budget cuts? And Republican politicians would still rather shovel state money to a foreign company than invest in Wisconsin’s own citizens? Too bad.