Over the decades, the former Lunn and Sweet shoe shop employed thousands of Maine workers producing first-class footwear.
These jobs, while difficult, paid livable wages and offered benefits. However, due to overseas competition and corporate greed, these jobs slowly left Maine.
Now, in an ironic twist, China, where many of our jobs have gone, is now poised to allow her wealthiest people the opportunity to come to Maine to access our health care.
As a five-star medical tourism facility, the former shoe factory will cater to a wealthy group of Chinese whose wealth accumulated under the disguise of communism.
Paying dismal wages to employees, often working in slave-like conditions, ignoring environmental concerns and encouraging American corporations to go to China to improve their own profit margins have, undoubtedly, helped make them wealthy.
Will the employees at this facility have access to health care? Or is that reserved only for the wealthy?
Will Auburn insist on decent wages and benefits or will we, once again, subsidize the corporate hierarchy?
Will this facility be considered non-profit, hence, tax exempt? If so, isn’t that corporate welfare, with taxpayers again subsidizing the wealthy?
The irony is that China is looking to the U.S. for health care after flooding our markets with cheap products and costing us millions of jobs.
To have local politicians accepting that with open arms is a slap in the face of Mainers, American workers and to America herself.
Joseph Mailey, Auburn
Send questions/comments to the editors.
