I can agree w/ one thing you guys are saying. Parents are probably right a lot of the time. Funny you should guess 99% because that's about exactly the percentage of American parents who do NOT send their kids to gulag.
Another thing I agree with you guys about. You (who regularly post here) are not in it for the money. In my experience, the grunt staff and parent recruiters give and give, sacrifice after sacrifice till they're dead tired, broke and have burned bridges at work, w/ family and in their communities. The staff I remember from The Seed and Straight usually shared small apartments in bad parts of town, owned older little shabby cars and worn clothes. They worked many more than 40 hours per week for damned near nothing.
The money doesn't go to these people. They're true believers. Misguided, wrong, deluded, but not greedy in the least. They're just as dedicated and sincere as Jim Jones' followers or David Koresh's followers. Doesn't make what they do good or right. But it's important to know who and what you're dealing with.
The money goes somewhere else. And there's lots of documentation on that just here on this site, let alone decades of journalism and political/financial reporting. Then, of course, you can just look at their digs. Some joker who pretends to have the kids best interest at heart but who lives in a million dollar mansion and owns a jet and a nice yacht is full of shit.
They came with a Bible and their religion- stole our land, crushed our spirit... and now tell us we should be thankful to the 'Lord' for being saved.
--Chief Pontiac, American Indian Chieftain