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Is Jack 'Bad Egg' DeCoster to Blame for Massive Recall?
So Far 380 Million Eggs Have Been Recalled; 2,000 Report Illness
Jack DeCoster, the owner of the company at the center of one of the largest egg recalls in history, is no stranger to controversy.
228 million eggs have been recalled after health authorities report salmonella cases. (Photograph: Robert F. Bukaty/AP)
He's been involved in legal cases that have forced him to settle with
the federal government for hiring illegal immigrants, for tolerating
sexual harassment at his company, and has faced a litany of animal
cruelty charges. DeCoster has also paid millions of dollars in fines
and settlements over the years stemming from complaints about the health
violations at his farms.
Critics may say he's a bad egg .
DeCoster, 75, is at the helm of the family-run egg farm Wright County Eggs based in Galt, Iowa. His farm, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, is responsible for providing salmonella-tainted eggs to 15 of the 25 restaurants where patrons have fallen ill.
Investigators are still trying to determine whether other farms also produced contaminated eggs.
The recall now encompasses approximately 380 million eggs nationwide, including those packaged just days ago. Nearly 2,000 people have been sickened, a number the CDC says is likely to rise.
The recall is the latest complaint lodged against DeCoster during his multi-decade career as an egg farmer.
One of the more egregious was filed in the summer of 1996 when DeCoster was made to pay more than $3 million in fines after the U.S. Labor Department found dead chickens being picked up by workers with bare hands. The complaint also stated that DeCoster's workers also lived beside manure and rat-infested trailers, according to the Associated Press. The complaint led to a boycott of DeCoster's eggs by several major supermarkets.
In 2000, the Iowa attorney general dubbed DeCoster a "habitual violator" of the state's environmental laws and ordered him to pay a $150,000 fine. DeCoster had failed to properly dispose of the hog and chicken manure and had let it run into a nearby creek.
Egg King Started in Business at Age of 12
Earlier this year, DeCoster pleaded guilty to 10 counts of animal cruelty over his company's treatment of its chickens. In June, DeCoster was ordered to pay more than more than $100,000 in fines and restitution, a ruling that is considered one of the landmark animal cruelty cases in history.
The charges and subsequent guilty plea came after an undercover investigation by Mercy For Animals, a national non-profit animal protection organization, that said they witnessed live birds being thrown in the trash, employees whipping birds by their necks in an attempt to kill them, and hens living in cages so small that their wings could not be lifted without getting snagged on wires.
The rotting corpses of hens were also often not removed from the cages they shared with hens that were producing eggs to be used in human consumption, according to Daniel Hauff, the director of investigations for the organization. His charges were also detailed in the complaint.
Investigators tracing the latest salmonella outbreak have traced some of the eggs back to DeCoster's farms. While they haven't determined yet what caused the outbreak, they are looking into whether rodents had been defecating in the chicken feed.
DeCoster began farming, according to a childhood friend, when he was just 12 with just a fraction of the chickens he now has.
"He's a self-made man," said Ralph Caldwell, a dairy farmer in Turner, Maine, where DeCoster was raised. "He started with 250 chickens, now he has 12 to 15 million, and all the hogs you can count."
According to Caldwell, DeCoster is a born-again Baptist who has contributed significant amounts of money to rebuild churches in Maine and in Iowa. He has four boys, all of whom Caldwell says "were brought up to work."
"He's a busy person, the type of guy who will leave his truck doors open and the engine running in the parking lot," said Caldwell. "He's possessed with doing business."
Egg King DeCoster Frequents Courts
Over the years, much of DeCoster's business has been done in various court rooms, a fact that Caldwell doesn't dispute but also argues doesn't tell the whole story.
"I'm not questioning that there've been problems, but it isn't from a lack of trying to do it right," said Caldwell.
DeCoster's company's spokeswoman Hinda Mitchell said he was not available for an interview with ABC News.
Public court records and reports chronicle DeCoster's storied history. With farms sprinkled across the U.S. in Maine, Ohio and Iowa, each of his properties has been the subject of litigation at one time or another.
In 2003, DeCoster reached a $2.1 million settlement with the federal government after pleading guilty to knowingly employing more than 100 undocumented workers in his Iowa farms, according to court documents.
It was allegations sexual harassment that landed DeCoster in trouble in 2002. Eleven female workers filed a complaint against DeCoster for sexual harassment, including rape, at the Iowa farms. According to the court documents, the women claimed that they were threatened that they would lose their jobs if they reported the crimes.
DeCoster again settled, paying $1.5 million to the victims, the documents state.
This latest recall, according to DeCoster's childhood friend, isn't likely to get him down. The others, said Caldwell, only served as motivation for him to keep working harder.
"The takeaway message is that problems are unsolved opportunities," said Caldwell. "He's going to do everything he can to get it fixed just as fast as he can to get back to business."
ABC News' Kim Carolla and Brad Martin contributed to this report.
- Posted in
59 Comments so far
Show AllAs someone who made his first spending money doing all sorts of farm chores, including feeding chickens, gathering, cleaning and packaging eggs, this gentleman is what is wrong with industrialized food production. We handled and cleaned each egg individually. We had a clean coop and free roaming for the 600 hundred chickens we cared for. The feed we ground ourselves and used pulverized shells from oysters and such. This guy is overstepping health and codes of ethical conduct every time you turn around. He should be in prison for the sexual crimes alone. What good does it do to fine him, anymore? Take away his ability to do anything but slurp chicken soup for 10 years. What a piece of shxt!
One more disgusting chapter in the terrible history of corporate farming.
"'He's a busy person, the type of guy who will leave his truck doors open and the engine running in the parking lot,' said Caldwell. 'He's possessed with doing business.'"
I wonder if this sycophant gave a second's thought to the actual meaning of the words he used.
q
sorry for the double post
We have to ask ourselves what is the real face of factory farming?
It is somewhat misleading to speak of it as solely corporate farming. The hideous aspect about all this is how many "family farms" participate as contractors. I live in county dominated by Mennonites. To outsiders they represent the ideal of bucolic life, carrying on 'natural' farming traditions of another era. The truth is, their community is a mass contractor for the likes of Cargill and Tyson, and, it is these very same 'family farmers' that operate the dozens turkey CAFO's that blight our county. 60,000 birds to a barn. Mortality rates that no one will own up to, but some estimates reach between 15-20%---thus necessitating the mortality composting requirements made of every legal CAFO. Mountains of manure. Stench. Dead escaped birds along the highways.
Some bucolic life style.
It keeps on because the general public keeps buying.
and on it continues...
But none of those conditions - or factory farming itself - would exist without corporate involvement as you yourself state.
No family farm could run a factory-type operation; they would need (a) corporate buyer(s) for the obscene amount of whatever they produced. No one is going to haul a million eggs to a state farmers' market.
q
Indeed! What's more, even the corporations couldn't operate the factory farms without the generous corporate welfare they receive from us in the form of farm subsidies.
Everyone should see the film Food Inc
You don't fully understand how the CAFO's work. Independent farmers sign on as contractors to manage the operations. They manage and oversee, but the costs are deferred and carried until delivery by say, Tyson or Cargill Meat Solutions, etc. In many ways there are parallels to the old systems of share-cropping. Many single independent farmers find themselves in the hole after settlement of costs upon delivery. One advantage the Anabaptists have over independents is their practice of communal ownership of property, machinery, et al. which tends to buffer their exposure to pecuniary loss; thus allowing them to continue on, collectively buying more land so they can build more CAFO's.
Yes, I do understand how CAFO's work.
"Independent farmers sign on as contractors to manage the operations."
Sign on with whom?
q
They sign on with Cargill, ConAgra, Tyson, etc.
The companies provide and maintain ownership of all live stock. They supply food. They arrange delivery and pick-up of stock and feed---many of the CAFO's raise the GMO soy and GMO corn that eventually returns as feed.
The farmer provides a location, a site built to specifications demanded by the companies, and promises to oversee and maintain stock until maturation.
Specifics about contracts and terms vary, but that is about the gist of it.
As they are responsible for costs, site maintenance--that includes disposal of accumulated manure and carcasses--proves to be the downfall for most independents that fail.
OK, so they sign on with a large corporation, correct?
I repeat my original argument: the farming practices detailed in the article - which are continually contaminating our food supply - would not be in place without corporate involvement. Hence, using the term "corporate farming" is entirely appropriate.
I don't think that you understand the real issues involved in this subject.
q
No one is arguing the corporate connection. It is nearly impossible to avoid some sort of corporate involvement when one farms on a larger scale. Imagine you've just harvested 2000 acres of soy, who's going to buy your crop?---the roadside produce stand isn't going to cut it. Where does the farmer sell the 1800 pounds of tomatoes that just ripened? The margins are so tight at the producer end that many farmers can not afford to farm on low volume production, to survive at all, they have to deal with an ultimate market place that is corporately dominated.
The essential point I was attempting to make dealt with trying to expand the general public perception of just exactly what 'corporate' agriculture is. As demonstrated in a number of comments above, many misconceptions exist.
Interesting, non placet, about the Mennonites. I, too, live in a county with lots of them. They do their best to buy up all the contiguous parcels of land they can to create very dubious farms. The mess runs off into the lakes (it's all lakes around here). They also are big into puppy/kitten mills.
Not so different from the sons of the Puritans and Quakers who led first England and then America into industrialization--with the effects we're still dealing with.
It's good to note these "fringe" benefits to buying cage-free, hormone-free eggs. They are more nutritious, taste better, and are less disease-prone.
But in the end, those are merely incidental perks. When we first encountered factory egg production it became impossible not to pay the small premium for cage-free eggs from free-range chickens. The 'producers' at least have some sort of tolerable, even enjoyable life experience. The alternative inflicts unimaginable, heartbreaking cruelty, tantamount to the horrific torture of veal pens, when only death finally brings relief.
We earnestly hope Jack DeCoster's Wright County Eggs and all similar factory animal farms are finally put out of business.
Agreed. I pay three times the price for the kind of eggs that you describe that I would for the mass-produced variety and I do so gladly.
Sadly, in this economy, many households can't afford to do so.
q
Can that volume be replaced by what you propose?
Why should anyone buy eggs from a huge factory-like farm 1000 miles away anyway? I have no trouble finding eggs from local small farmers or farm co-ops in local non-chain grocery stores. Or next time on a trip out of town, look for signs "eggs for sale" - sold by homeowners with some free-range chickens running about the back. Or maybe I'm just lucky to live in the somewhat "quaint" state of Pennsylvania where most groceries seem to be produced by smaller Amish and Mennonite farmers and like.
Maybe you ought to scrutinize a little more the activities of the Mennonites and Amish in your state.
Who do you think operates the CAFO's that supply the processors?
All is not necessarily what it seems---try visiting an Amish puppy mill.
It's pretty easy nowadays to find free range chicken eggs, even in the largest supermarket. Anyone who buys anything else is contributing to a massively inhumane system where animals are treated like commodities, and humans (the customers) are too.
Too bad the Amish and Mennonites are not the model for this country's endeavors. That's where you find the 'kinder, gentler' society someone used to talk about.
Beware of advertising. "Free Range" "hormone free" etc. Check it out. When I pull into the driveway, slowly, so the ladies who have prepared my eggs for me can mosey out of the way ... I know they are free range and happy workers.
Looking at a box in a cooler, with a picture of a farm (always pastoral) and words that tell me what someone wants me to believe about the contents of the box, I'm reminded of Kellogg. They put a white check mark on their cereal boxes with words like 'healthy choice' to let people know that their (genetically modified grains, high sugar GMO corn syrup, high sodium ridden) cereal is good for them. At that point, I return to the nearest small farmer for my eggs and enjoy them sunny side up without worry. Stopped eating processed foods years ago when I became a thoughtful and much healthier consumer on a meager budget. Budget savings include the thousands not spent on doctors and medications.
from the Natural Resources Defense Council website:
( http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/factor/stpen.asp )
"Pollution Problems
In some parts of Pennsylvania, citizens are worried about pollution from nitrates and the contamination of their drinking water supply.5 High levels of nitrates in drinking water have been associated with "blue-baby" syndrome in infants, which impairs the baby's bloodstream's ability to carry oxygen. (Nitrate contaminated well water has also been associated with a recent cluster of miscarriages among women in Indiana. See Indiana chapter.)
Pennsylvania's Lancaster County -- known for its dairy, pork and poultry production6 -- has problems with water contamination from nitrates due, in part, to pollution from large and small farms.7 Lancaster's Conestoga River has the highest concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus of any Susquehanna tributary monitored by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.8
Many of Pennsylvania's surface waters, including Chesapeake Bay tributaries, are also contaminated with nitrates and other animal-related pollutants.9 The lower Susquehanna watershed, for example, suffers from high levels of nitrogen enrichment.10
A glut of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus is the leading cause of environmental degradation in the Chesapeake Bay, primarily because it fuels the runaway growth of algae. When algae decomposes, it consumes oxygen, depleting the bay water's oxygen supply, a crucial element for survival of the Chesapeake's famed shellfish and fish stocks.
According to Lamonte Garber of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, runoff from mismanagement of manure-spreading equipment and manure storage on existing farms has also resulted in a number of fish kills in Pennsylvania streams.11 One such incident in Cumberland County, near the state capitol of Harrisburg, was reported this spring in the Carlisle, PA newspaper, The Sentinel:
About 5,000 gallons of liquid pig manure released into the ground at a South Middleton Township farm nearly put a dent in the opening of trout fishing season. Farmer Jonathan Rudolph ... released the manure after a heavy manure spreader twice bogged down in soft ground. Much of the manure found its way into an unnamed tributary of Yellow Breeches Creek, designated a Pennsylvania Scenic River [and a nationally known trout stream]. "The water was tar black -- it looked like oil you drain out of your car," South Middleton Township road crew employee Ron Uhler says.... Department of Environmental Protection officials say just about all the minnows, suckers and catfish living in the tributary were killed, but Yellow Breeches appears to have been spared [thanks to the quick response of township officials].... A strong smell of pig manure left little doubt about what was in the creek.12"
Just the kind of bad egg capitalism produces. At 75, DeCoster should know better, but all he's learned from life is how to amass profits any way he can, legal, shadowy, or downright illegal. Of course, in this country, illegal for a corporation means a slap on the hands, and is well worth it as for as the 'bottom line' is concerned. I can understand the 're-education' camps the Chinese used to have for greedy bastards like this. I would just shoot them.
Pay a bit more and get local eggs. Still a protein bargain at 35 cents a pop...
The problem is that no matter how much you pay that is not a possibility for most people.
The supply is not there.
And they're fresher, too.
Freshness in eggs is important. A one or two-day old egg is heavier than it will be one ot two weeks later - the time that it takes most commerically produced eggs to get to our supermarket. It's yolk is also darker and it just tastes better.
q
This deals with the sympton and not the cause.
When a person goes in to any store to buy food , s/he should feel confident the food safe to eat.
Just as when I run a glass of water from my tap to drink, I should feel confident it safe to drink.
The "fear" of unsafe tap water drives an entire industry of bottled waters for Profit. I would not like to see the entire food industry driven out of "fear" as well .
There is far too much "fear" being generated. It can not be good for us.
The real answer to the question posed in the headline is that DeCoster is not responsible. It is the ongoing failure of our government that is responsible.
His record is quite evident and there is no excuse for his continuing to operate except for the gutting of oversight by the appropriate agencies.
Its a shame that this and past administrations busy themselves with things that are not their business and ignore the very things that are.
linkwray had the appropriate suggestion below for the disposition of this slime.
The lack of oversight is no excuse for this man's egregious sins. He's been in the business long enough to know how to produce eggs properly. He simply chooses to cut corners.
The fact that you may leave your front door standing open doesn't make the guy who walks in and steals your TV any less of a thief.
q
You miss my point. Are you surprised if you arrest a criminal, put him on probation which he promptly breaks, repeats the crime and you repeat the non-punishment that he continues the path that rewards him?
Fine him a million dollars when he makes 100 million is not exactly punishment is it?
He should have been shut down, put out of business. Its not that he is not responsible for his actions, its that our government is responsible for allowing him to continue in business. Very much like the Miners that lost their lives because the Mine owner was allowed to keep paying fines he could pay out of petty change.
This is exactly the problem with unregulated capitalism. You cannot allow criminals to continue in business. And this man IS a criminal, he knows what he is doing. But the blame is the Federal governments.
Take all 300,000,000 eggs and 'egg' his house with him in it and then make a big omelet and put it in a big deep hole.
Grow you own chickens so you can have eggs every day if you want - and/or sell some to pay for their keep.
Check out http://www.backyardpountrymag.com for an excellent magazine on small flocks of chickens, geese, ducks, guinea hens, and more.
It's easy and most towns allow at least a few chickens in your backyard.......fence predators out (including neighborhood dogs), feed them organic feed - see ads in above magazine - so you will have organic eggs and be healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Also an excellent new book, "City Chicks" you can get on Amazon.com is written specifically for small flocks in urban and suburban areas.
Google "breeds of chickens" and check out all the beautiful birds you can order. Too late this year because hatcheries don't ship birds this late, but you can plan now, get their housing and fencing ready (nothing fancy, but they need about 3 square feet in a chicken house plus running around space outside), and order chicks as early as February if you're in a warmish climate.
Lots of help if you have questions from any of the hatcheries online. and there are many more than you might think.
Get a breed suitable for your climate and just do it. They're fun, tame, and supply eggs, material for garden compost pile, eat bugs and keep grass cut down. If you can stand to eat your friends, you can also have chicken any time you want - - there's probably someone in your area who will kill and dress them for you for not much money (perhaps $5 per bird - believe me, it's worth it not to do it yourself because you raised them from babies).
If people don't start taking personal responsibility for some of their food, this sort of thing will keep happening. We simply cannot rely on industrialized food and expect to stay healthy.
Chickens are the easiest livestock to raise - - and I've raised sheep (also pretty easy), geese (also easy), ducks (also easy). rabbits (must be caged so not so easy), guinea fowl (easy but they fly away into the trees and you never see them again), cows (too big and very inefficient), and pigs (too much like people - they're your friends!).
Lots and lots of good chicken-raising books out there, but I'd start with the "Backyard Poultry" magazine and send for free catalogs from various hatcheries and coop builders.
It's time.............
excellent...
Where (around Sacramento CA) would you find someone to "kill and dress them" for $5 each. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them. Can't find anybody on Craigs list.........
~~Bill
If you're going to raise them for meat, you might as well learn to complete the job yourself.
We refuse to kill any of our birds--it's bad enough when you have to find one that some predator attacked, or something else equally as dire. The eggs are sufficient reward.
what a strange article...
a hard-driven, regulation-skirting, sexual predator's friend's accolades in response to tainted food and demonstrably poor practices?
I wonder if any study done comparing the number of mass food recalls in the 19070's in the USA then today or the making of country to country comparisons when it comes to such recalls.
It my opinion there three major reasons for what *I* believe are exponential increases in food recalls and the contamination of the food supply.
1>The relaxing of Regulations. (This once more discrediting the "Libertarian" vision of no government interference in the marketplace)
2>The onset of Industrial scale Agriculture.
This the feedlots where cattle fed meat by products and corn and where masses of animals kept in small places.
3>GMO's and increased uses of Pesticides/herbicides and antibiotics . CHEMICALS and agriculture do not mix.
There super pigweed growing all across the USA and farmers sre bankrupting thmselves trying to kill it off with even more Chemicals. All thise does is create pigweed that is even more resistant to the same. The same happens with foods grown for human consumption. The pests or bacteria develop greater and greater tolerance to the chemicals or drugs used against them and thus have a greater impact when ingested by humans.
1>The relaxing of Regulations. (This once more discrediting the "Libertarian" vision of no government interference in the marketplace)
Absolutely no argument. And the Libetarians view is as faulty as those that wish too much interference. Extremists are ALWAYS wrong.
2>The onset of Industrial scale Agriculture.
Absolutely.
This the feedlots where cattle fed meat by products and corn and where masses of animals kept in small places.
3>GMO's and increased uses of Pesticides/herbicides and antibiotics . CHEMICALS and agriculture do not mix.
Are you suggesting that we could feed our population without any fertilizers and chemicals? Organics only?
>>Are you suggesting that we could feed our population without any fertilizers and chemicals? Organics only?
We can cut their use dramatically through proper farming practices. What happens today is farmers want to maximize their output so they put as much land as is possible into production. The only way to do that is to boost the use of Fertilizers and pesticides/herbicides.
(Our farm used to have small woods throughout the fields. This acted as both windbreak and as shelter for cattle when that land turned to pasture. It also acted as a shelter for various birds that preyed on pests. Today farmers plow these under to squeeze out a few more acres of land to grow crops on. We also had small sloughs that dried in the summer off which we woudl get hay. Farmers today drain these again to maximize land in production. The Sloughs were filled with birds/frogs snakes and the like that ate pests)
The fertilizers for obvious reasons as they soil is depleted of all nutrients when overused, and the latter because weeds and pests THRIVE on monoculture crops.
Now my Cousin farms over 2000 acres in North Alberta. He determined that the costs of using more and more chemical fertilizers and pesticides ate away any profits that might have come from putting more land into production.
He has cut the use of such significantly (He still needs some amounts of potash and chemical fertilizers but no where near what most in the area use).
This through crop rotation , allowing land to return to pasture and putting cattle on it, the growing of a wider variety of crops on the same land (instead of corn corn corn...he might go peas, wheat, Canola, Flax, alfalfa, pasture pasture pasture on the same land) and no till agriculture.
Now in 4000 bc the peoples of Mesopotamia were getting crop yields of barley that were higher then or equal to what we get today some 6000 years later with all that herbicides and pesticides.
SOUND farming practices work. This along with trying to protect lands best suited for Agriculture from development. Drive around Edmonton and you have rich soil. It is being paved over for housing. Thats just dumb.
Great info, thanks. What I don't know about real framing today would just about fill Mesopotamia.
i'm so glad i'm a vegan............
You do understand that well over 90% of the soy now grown is genetically modified?
Elaborating further, being a vegan offers dubious escape.
Assuming you're clever enough to avoid conventionally produced soy products, there's no guarantee that the 'organic' products you purchase are that much removed from the agricultural horrors now transpiring. Many jurisdictions now allow the manure generated from CAFO's to be accredited as organic! In states such mine, CAFO waste is frequently used as a fertilizer source with the resultant crops allowed the designation 'organic'.
Don't you see, being a 'vegan' doesn't exempt you from concern over this issue.
that's where you are wrong non placet..........
i live in europe not the states..........
i buy from trusted local farmers..........
i do not buy imported foods from any other country..........
i am fortunate enough to be able to acquire all the vegetables/fruits i need to maintain my health, within my local community............
soy is not the 'only' protein giving food available.............
AHHH yes -- the European Union protects the people. In America the government protects the corporations, taxes the people to give subsidies to large corporatons in order to put small local operations out of business, and then warns us after the fact that our non-nurishing foods are also lethal. It's called capitalism, a consumer economy, trickle down economics and other cute terms to fool the sheeple.
Keep up the fight against Monsanto etal. When we finally reach bottom we'll need a good leader to pull us up onto our feet again. Save seeds too. Our land will be overrun with GMO monster crops, the soil will be sterile and the survivors of this tragady will need to borrow seeds to start over.
Not a vegetarian, still eat a little fish and chicken, but envy your European food protections.
I'll echo thegreenchick's comments.
You are indeed fortunate to be living in an environment that has not yet become completely corrupted by 'market forces'.
Just for the record, though we may not necessarily agree on details, I appreciate your principled position on life.
peace to you
thank you non placet...........
and just for the record too, i have to dilligently wash the greens etc. as there is usually some little creatures/snails etc. living inside......(who i return to the wild)
peace to you also............
yes, that's why i don't eat it.............
A fine is just another cost of doing business, and it's passed on to the consumer in a higher price. In China he would be shot -- maybe not what we want to do here, but to let him stay in business and just pay fines obviously is not an effective control -- for any corporation.
This guy should be required to eat a random sample of the eggs produced by his chickens daily for the remainder of his life. Our regulatory agencies have no balls at all and rodent turds are considered by some producers of chicken eggs and peanuts as dietary supplements. It would also be an excellent public health policy to require senior bureaucrats in the Department of Agriculture to dine regularly on hamburgers made from the meat of "downer" cattle.
I see America as having a serious case of frustration because the wealthy and politically connected and elite have been able to skip out on all accountability while the little people face major punishment for their little crimes.
The French Revolution was caused by similar outrageous behavior towards average people while the rich were considered above it and immune. This stuff goes on for so long and then society has its fill, and then the guillotine gets dusted off.
The market place will adjust to demand. The rich will trickle their wealth down. How is that working for you all? I tried to warn you about Nixon, Reagan and that crowd of chicken hawks but you chose them over the hippie. Enjoy yourself. You guys who want to be leaders and poor you might as well forget it because the followers will watch you lose your jobs, home family and the girls will go with the rich guys. You will end up like me all alone except for family. Not worth it because poverty really sucks. They had the guns, the bosses, the cops, the courts. I had myself. The criminals won and the good guys lost. Honesty obviously is not the best policy. Of course maybe things will change for me. As of the present this is how it is. Sorry younger generation. I really tried.