Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 145
significant wealth behind. Thus the human drive for power, under any system, is based
on the accumulation of property, which combined with labor are the sources of wealth.
Making money is the ultimate work objective of all creative people and, in America,
taxation at all levels is the worst obstacle to that objective. In my view the current of the
rivers of legislation that emanate from governments, local to national, should always
flow in the direction productive citizens move, not against them. The unfortunate reality
is that the imperative of preservation of power by government officials often leads them
to redistribute not just wealth but also the tools to create wealth. Often these tools go
into the hands of groups who would rather enjoy the benefit of other’s creations than to
create themselves. Thus, opportunities for long-term value creation thrown their way are
usually wasted and funds given to them are consumed without a trace. Eventually these
groups become large and powerful enough to dictate behavior to their elected
representatives in exchange for their votes. It then becomes impossible to determine if
the politician is buying the votes by pandering to his or her electors or the electors are
buying the politician. In either case, government becomes an instrument to benefit a few
at the expense of the whole. The corruption of our constitutional principles and of our
system takes hold and another root of possible decadence begins growing.
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RECONSTRUCTION.
As in preparation for the new opportunities that I hoped would reappear in the future, in
the late summer of 1990, Jean Szabuniewicz, now from San Angelo, visited me again,
this time in the company of Laura Ducote, a member of the family whose land I had
helped develop a few years before. They laid out a proposal that essentially said that if I
rescued her family’s coffee company I could determine my own compensation. DeCoty
Coffee Company was the only roaster, grinder, blender and distributor of coffee and
allied products in West Texas. With the help of a couple of his brothers, Laura’s father
founded it in 1929 on the banks of the Concho River. He started by serving coffee to the
soldiers stationed at Fort Concho, the predecessor of today’s City of San Angelo. By
1987, Mr. Ducote Sr. wanted to transfer ownership to his son Charles and daughter
Laura, action that required purchasing the interest that one of his brothers still had in the
company. In 1988 the company was free of debt and was grossing a predictable
revenue of about eleven million dollars per year, leaving an after tax profit of nearly
$400,000, after having paid sometimes generous salaries to the family members on its
payroll.
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