Wisconsin
Wisconsin exhibits manufacturing persistence: dairy leadership, specialty production, and Foxconn's failed $4B gamble reveal risks of single-project economic strategy.
Wisconsin's economy remains rooted in manufacturing at a time when most states have deindustrialized. Paper mills, machinery plants, and specialty manufacturers provide employment across the state, not just in Milwaukee. The dairy industry—America's largest—shapes rural economics and culture, with cheese production generating billions annually while defining state identity.
The Foxconn saga illustrated Wisconsin's manufacturing ambitions and their limits. The state offered $4 billion in incentives for a promised LCD panel factory that never materialized at scale, revealing the risks of betting on single transformative projects. Yet smaller manufacturing continues: engine components, electrical equipment, and specialty foods maintain employment in towns that lost other industries.
Milwaukee anchors the southeast as a modest-sized metro with Fortune 500 companies (Northwestern Mutual, Manpower) and a healthcare sector that rivals larger cities. Madison combines state government with the University of Wisconsin's research enterprise, creating a smaller-scale version of the college-town dynamism seen in Austin or Raleigh. Wisconsin's challenge is managing the transition away from paper and dairy as those industries consolidate, while leveraging its manufacturing DNA for twenty-first-century production.