Born December 28, 1883 in Hengelo, The Netherlands, Hendrik Meijer was the founder of the Meijer grocery store chain. By 1907, he had immigrated to the United States with his family and settled in the Holland area. His father worked in a mill for the Stork B.V. machine factory - hot on the heels of the Industrial Revolution, and around age 12, Hendrik joined his father in the factory. People in Europe were hard followers of the writings of Marx and Engels, and were very pro-union and pro-worker's rights. Contrary to the modern American right-wing understanding of things, "socialism" isn't where we take all of your money and give it to others, taxes aren't punitive, and unions protect the worker and not just the lazy. Socialism is very pro-labor and, as an economic model, allows workers to thrive as the company does better. Seize the means of production and all that. When workers are laid off to improve shareholder profits, they really should get rais...