22
votes
"They demolished my house for this?" In Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, families were forced out for a huge Foxconn factory, but three years later, it still hasn’t been built
Link information
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- Title
- 'They demolished my house for this?' Residents outraged by the Foxconn factory that fizzled
- Authors
- Tom Perkins
- Published
- Dec 8 2020
- Word count
- 1912 words
This whole thing has been a fascinating story to follow. I think Josh Dzieza's articles about it at The Verge have been the best coverage (and at least one of them is linked from this Guardian article). The most recent major one he put out was in October: Inside Foxconn's empty buildings, empty factories, and empty promises in Wisconsin
So why the fuck doesn't Mount Pleasant sue Foxconn for the money? Even if the project doesn't fail, the deal was totally fraudulent from the beginning, and I seem to recall many people at the time saying so. Put the politicians who approved it in jail, sue Foxconn, and give people at least some portion of their lives back, FFS. It's hard to watch a train wreck like this.
Oh thanks! I'll check it out.
It might be that the politicians signed a bad contract.
Unfortunately, the village is still on the hook for its leaders’ mistakes, unless they find some legal workaround.
I'd recommend this episode of Reply All on the issue: #132 Negative Mount Pleasant . In context, it's pretty obvious the politicians approved this plan for a "cheap", symbolic political win (ie, "we're bringing back factory jobs").
(Edit: looks like /u/seizethegoddamngap beat me on the link by a minute)
Here's a simple solution to prevent stuff like this from happening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax