Henry Ford
basically founded the model that would serve the American Industrial society well for the next 70 years. It was even named after him. He's the guy that said "of course I pay my workers well, even though I don't have to. I want my workers to be my customers too... and they can only be my customers if they can afford it." In short, he realised that taking less now would mean his assets would be less in the short term, but more secure in the long term.
I learned about this model in my second year Political Economy class at Queen's University. It's called Fordism.
