A dutch reporter asked what I thought about Hank Meijer after saying “he writes books and supports many cultural initiatives”

A reporter with De Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper – recently reached out to me after they did an interview with Hank Meijer.

Interviewing Hank Meijer comes as no surprise as he has for decades been involved in Dutch/American Heritage work, like the lecture he gave last year for the West Michigan Dutch American Heritage Celebration.

As the reporter from De Volkskrant was doing some research on Hank Meijer he came across a GRIID article about the Meijer family that was less flattering. Thus, the De Volkskrant reporter reached out to me to ask if he could talk with me and pose some questions. I said, sure. Here is what the reporter wrote in their very next Email:

What is your main objection to Meijer Inc?

Do you consider that making a contribution to the community as a company? Or do they just do it for show?

I spent a day with Hank Meijer. He doesn’t strike me as the typical American billionaire; he writes books and supports many cultural initiatives. How do you see that?

This response and this question from the reporter with De Volkskrant told me a great deal about the reporter, what he thought about Hank Meijer and how he clearly has internalized the values of the Capitalist system.

What is your main objection to Meijer Inc? My main objection has to do with the fact that the Meijer brothers, Hank, Doug and Mark are each worth $6.2 billion, making their collective worth $18.6 billion, according to the most recent Forbes Real-Time Billionaires ranking.

The Meijer brother wealth jumped significantly during the pandemic, since they were making a killing off of their chain of retail stores. As I wrote in October of 2021, the Meijer brother’s wealth had grown $6.7 billion from the beginning of the pandemic to October of 2021.

The wealth of the Meijer brothers has continued to expand, which puts them as the wealthiest family in West Michigan, even wealthier than the DeVos family. Now, the Meijer family doesn’t insert themselves has much into politics as the DeVos family, but their wealth has similar outcomes for the rest of us, especially their employees.

Meijer Inc. employees thousands of people to work in their stores and their warehouses. The warehouse workers are unionized, but not the store workers. Store workers do not make a living wage, not even close to the amount that one would have to earn to afford the average cost of rent in the Grand Rapids market, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. In order for Meijer store employees to afford the average cost of a 2 bedroom apartment they would have to earn $24.46 an hour. This number increases to $26.33 per hour for those living in Grand Rapids. Most Meijer store employees make way less than that, but they don’t have to.

In another article I wrote about the Meijer brother’s wealth I pointed out that in the first year of the pandemic, the Meijer brother’s increased their wealth by $2.6 billion. $2.6 billion would be enough to pay 26,666 employees earning $40 an hour for 40 hours a week for an entire year. Considering that the Meijer brother’s are currently worth $18.6 billion, it seems reasonable that they could afford to live off of $16 billion, the amount they would still have after paying employees a livable wage.

To the reporter’s other points about Meijer contributions to the community, I have a few responses. First, Meijer funds to run the Meijer Gardens and other charitable functions is money that comes from their foundation. Foundations by the rich are designed to hide some of their wealth so it won’t be taxed, then to distract us from the issue of poverty and inequality. Second, the food drive that Meijer does annually during the annual Meijer sponsored LPGA Golf tournament is both insulting and a PR stunt. Meijer employees are accessing food assistance because the Meijer Corporation doesn’t pay them enough.

The last point that the De Volkskrant reporter makes – “I spent a day with Hank Meijer. He doesn’t strike me as the typical American billionaire; he writes books and supports many cultural initiatives. How do you see that?” First, I would say, read everything above. Second, the fact that this reporter makes such an observation demonstrates that he feels that billionaires can be descent people and they earned their wealth so why all the complaining.

This is a fundamental problem with journalism today, where billionaires are treated as heroes and celebrated for their generosity. Reporters are rarely even asking how the billionaire class made their wealth, which is usually a combination of inheritance or by paying those who actually do the work unlivable wages. This was my response to the reporter.