During 18 months of a Pandemic, the wealth of Doug & Hank Meijer has grown by $6.7 Billion

Imagine what people in Grand Rapids, particularly families who have been negatively impacted by COVID, could do with $6.7 billion dollars collectively? 

Just as a frame of reference, $6.7 billion is roughly 14 times the size of the 2022 budget for the City of Grand Rapids ($546 million). So, I’ll ask again, imagine what people/families who have been affected by Covid could do with $6.7 billion collectively?

In March, we wrote about how the wealth of Hank & Doug Meijer had grown, along with many other billionaires just during the pandemic. At that point, the wealth of Hank & Doug Meijer had grown from $10.2 to $12.6 billion in the first year of the pandemic.

Just a few months ago, in August, we posted another story about the Meijer brother’s wealth growing once again. From March of 2021 through the beginning of August of 2021, their wealth had grown by $900 Million, bring their total wealth to $13.5 Billion.

In less than 2 months, the wealth of Hank & Doug Meijer has grown to a total of $16.9 Billion. This means that since the beginning of the pandemic, their wealth has grown by $6.7 Billion, while millions of people are struggling to stay alive, are food insecure and facing eviction.

We also wrote in the August 2021 post, asking why people were not storming the Meijer headquarters in Walker, Michigan? I imagine that there are plenty of people who are mad as hell about the growing wealth gap, especially during a pandemic, yet there is no visible evidence that anyone is organizing a massive campaign to force Hank & Doug Meijer to give up part of their wealth. Why is that?

Do we really believe that they earned this wealth and not those who do the actual work in the Meijer stores and warehouses? Are we unwilling to force them to give up some of their wealth because the law says it is theirs? Do we actually think if we can the right people elected to office that wealth will be more evenly distributed in society? 

Imagine if there were 2,000, 5,000, 20,000 or more people who converged on the Meijer headquarters and demanded that Hank & Doug handed over the $6.7 Billion they have made during the pandemic? What do you think those in power would do? Those in power would no doubt call for the cops, hell maybe even the Michigan National Guard to come and arrest thousands of people who were demanding that the wealthiest family give up money they do not need, so others could have a descent life.

These are the circumstances that led Dr. King and other organizers to create the Poor People’s Campaign. These are the moments that gave birth to the Zapatista uprising or the creation of the Landless People’s Movement in Brazil, the African National Congress and so many other uprisings in history. These are revolutionary moments people. What are we willing to do?