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Did Vic Fool Harry?


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Exy and TS -

(lol)I already have a few old "Uncle Burl" albums.

All I need do now is drive to KFC and pick up a greasy bucket of fried chicken...

Belle - Until last night I also had never seriously considered UH day and how selfish it actually seems now. The stuff about tithing starting up when UH got on board certainly does give one pause to wonder.

Danny

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The idea of getting rid of things impeding your relationship with God is

not a bad idea, in and of itself.

Naming it after someone is a different story.

Especially when you're criticizing all other groups who've done the same.

Amazing how people can go from having the right motives (?) to thinking

they're entitled to 10% of your income....

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I remember Uncle Harry used to say claim that he left the teachings up to Veepee and he took care of the business and the money. He always struck me as being sorta lecherous. I remember him "sharing" at some big fellowship meeting, where he spent 30 minutes telling everybody to cheat the IRS in any way that they could.

Did UH buy into the MOG. thing? I mean did he really believe that his adulterous, bible thumping younger brother was the man of God in the whole world? Doubtful, in my opinion. Harry knew about the MOG myth and went along with it...afterall, it was good for "business". icon_wink.gif;)-->

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A very interesting thread.

VPW as the architect and promoter, UH as the backoffice accountant-money handler. You would need both to make it work.

Has anyone ever verified that UH really did make a million dollars? You can't make a million dollars, at least in those days, without some hardness and shrewdness.

Maybe Rubin pumping gas was the most honorable of the three.

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Now I'm wondering how much of Uncle Harry's influence might have contributed to that weird "commitment-charge" for the class.

What a bizarre selling scheme used for PFAL (at least in '78): the charge for the class was said not to have been a charge for the class per se -the class was supposedly "free"(!) -but the hundred bucks you were required to fork over was supposedly representative of your "commitment" to sit through the class (!) -well shoot, why didn't we get that hundred dollars back when the class was over? So in short -I paid somebody else for something I already possessed or exercised ...damn, what a helluva slick scheme!

And I got suckered into it.

icon_mad.gif

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Yeah...give me a hundred bucks to prove your committment...and after you have proven it, I'll keep the hundred!...and we used to tell people that twi didn't make money running classes! icon_eek.gif I guess we bought that one because WE didn't make any money running classes! Imagine that...an entire sales force that works for free! All ya gotta do is give em is a little blue pin and say "it's good to be home again"

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The reason we were given for the class "donation" was:

In the "early days", Wierwille offered the class for free. People would drop in and out of the class sessions. Wierwille figured people would be more committed to staying the entire length of the class if they made a sizable monetary contribution (sort of a "hit 'em where they live" attitude).

In retrospect, I have to wonder if the reason was actually the people tended to be older, more indoctrinated (and comfortable) in their religious beliefs, and, because of their life experiences, equipped with a more refined "b_llsH_t meter".

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I paid $85 for it in 1975. shortly after that it jumped to $100...People were complaining, so Veepee got ....ed off and doubled it to $200...I recall him saying at the time, that there was no price you could put on it and that we just didn't "see it big enough"...he supposedly doubled the price to teach us a greater appreciation of the value of the class.

Isn't it ironic that this class, which we deemed as being "priceless", actually turned out to be "worthless".

As far as UH's involvement with twi, I am waiting for someone with more knowledge than me to weigh in on this issue...I know some of the oldtimers, who lived at hdqrts in the early 70's could tell us quite a bit...

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Well, we knew it wasn't a "materials fee".

I took it for $40, got the Orange and White Books, the syllabus,

and "Christians Should Be Prosperous."

Retail, that's about how much it would have cost for the books,

and the 4th book was meant to encourage me to give more money.

Those who paid over $50 were hosed, plain and simple.

Paying $80 is plainly meant to send money to hq, paying $100 even

moreso. Since their only expense was the books-which they did NOT pay

retail for- and the tapes, which were reused- they cleared a LOT of

profit, even at $40 per student.

==============

(Edited to correct obvious typos.)

Edited by WordWolf
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quote:
As far as UH's involvement with twi, I am waiting for someone with more knowledge than me to weigh in on this issue...I know some of the oldtimers, who lived at hdqrts in the early 70's could tell us quite a bit...

There was an excellent thread about UH on the old Waydale forum. Maybe one of the privileged with a backup copy could find and post it.

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"Has anyone ever verified that UH really did make a million dollars? You can't make a million dollars, at least in those days, without some hardness and shrewdness"

Did you ever consider, "You can't make a million dollars, at least in those days without some hardness and shrewdness?",

Not a very bright statement!

Of course if God was working with UH, he could make a million.

I know people back 'then' that were millionairs and who were not hard or shrewd. They did good honest hard work and happened to be very innovative.

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quote:
As far as UH's involvement with twi, I am waiting for someone with more knowledge than me to weigh in on this issue...I know some of the oldtimers, who lived at hdqrts in the early 70's could tell us quite a bit...

I guess I'm an old timer. Got in the way in 1970. Went to all the rock of ages then and visted the farm a few times. I didn't live at there till 1974 or 5 and then only for a year. I came back a few years later for another year.

I don't know how things worked in the back offices. I never knew Harry well. But saw him around a lot. My impression of him was that he was not shrewd by any stretch. Probably a competent business man, but hey, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to run the finances for an upholstery business. You just have to be able to add, subtract, negotiate and not be impulsive about overspending.

I don't doubt he made some money in his day - maybe not a million but some change to spare. And apparently he didn't care to use it all on himself so he gave it to vic. He seemed like a fuddy duddy old grandpa. Apparently he was a bit of a dirty old man as well. Story was he had a wife that treated him poorly. Got to wonder what was his part in that relationship.

One true story. I was in the way corps on leave from college and had to do some reading/writing for school to keep my attendance there so I could go back on my interim year. I needed a book from the local library - the nearest one that had it was in Lima. In residence folk were not allowed to just pop down to Lima on our own so Harry said he'd get it for me. He did. But come to find out, he never checked it out of the library. Just took it. Walked off with it. I got to use it for as long as I wanted. Have to admit to this day I can't remember if I ever returned it. Probably not.

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