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The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

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Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#71

Post by throwaway5752 »

TomMckenny wrote: post #49
Spooky23 wrote: post #7

When I worked retail sales in the 90s there was an Amway cult meeting nearby. Every few weeks, they would drop in after a pep-rally type thing and try to waste your time looking at the most expensive thing and talk about their amazing business. Then they'd drop the pitch (at the time it was about their e-commerce business). Once you ran into them, you could spot them. It was a mix of desperate mid-life crisis guys lo…

Fun Fact: the current secretary of education is a multi-billionaire because her family runs Amway.

And her brother founded Blackwater Security. He tried to broker a backchannel with Russia after the election (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/black...)

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#72

Post by brighton36 »

dwoozle wrote: post #63
elil17 wrote: post #2

This article doesn’t dig into the details, but these companies are really vicious. They aggressively recruit at my college and I’ve seen them to convince students to take what they would have spent on next semesters tuition and use it to buy “inventory” (i.e. more products than they’ll ever be able to resell) instead. These things ruin people’s lives

Why shouldn’t the principals of a company that willfully harms so many people’s lives receive a criminal punishment on par with what someone who murders a single person gets?

Because these fools choose to be parted from their money.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#73

Post by kjs3 »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #46
didgeoridoo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This map shows MA, MD, and VT as “red”. These are three of the most reliable Democrat-voting states in the country. Something is wrong with your map.

This needs to be at a county level. Many blue states are deeply red outside their cities.

Yup. Atlanta is a blue dot in a sea of Georgia red.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#75

Post by kjs3 »

StanAngeloff wrote: post #34

Over the past 15 years, I've had the opportunity to work with more than a dozen MLM companies in the UK. This won't be a popular opinion, however I believe great quality products and a self-regulating industry can create businesses that are far from being a Ponzi scheme but are legitimate companies with ethics, great support and opportunity to earn decent money.

The only reason I didn't downvote you was you didn't launch into the inevitable-from-an-MLM-apologist "and you can learn more about how to get rich like me by...". The things you "believe" are provably untrue for the majority of unfortunates who fall into the MLM trap. You should be ashamed (I know you won't) for perpetuating those falsehoods.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#76

Post by qwerty456127 »

kjs3 wrote: post #74
qwerty456127 wrote: post #62

What if all the businesses were MLM? What if MLM schemes were also designed to re-distribute rewards so all the wealth wouldn't concentrate in the the top members' pockets?

They wouldn't be MLMs in any recognizable sense?

I mean what if there were no centralized retailers, everybody would be encouraged to re-sell, everybody would be rewarded for distributing to other active re-sellers, people receiving abnormally high passive income from their networks because of their high position in the distribution hierarchy would be taxed to reward active minors.

At the same time businesses producing goods (rather than distributing tem) and services (incl. storage, logistics and quality control) would remain the classic way, MLM is just about the sales.

Just imagine buying all your groceries and gadgets from neighbors and friends rather than from Walmart/etc. Wouldn't that be nice?

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#77

Post by gexla »

elil17 wrote: post #2

This article doesn’t dig into the details, but these companies are really vicious. They aggressively recruit at my college and I’ve seen them to convince students to take what they would have spent on next semesters tuition and use it to buy “inventory” (i.e. more products than they’ll ever be able to resell) instead. These things ruin people’s lives

Interesting they go the route of selling inventory. It must be required to make the thing legit. From what I could see from one meeting I was tricked into attending (it was supposed to be a BBQ and no mention of any sort of meeting) the real product to sell was the high margin learning materials and seminars. That the effort of course goes into recruiting people to sell this stuff to. The guy who invited me did well to place himself as the "church" and "organizer." The rest were suckers being sold on the "community" component. Do your capitalist prayers and good things will come to you. Have faith!

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#78

Post by gexla »

thephyber wrote: post #17
Spooky23 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mormons tend run the companies and seed the initial demand. Moms with built in communities are big markets. Wherever you have a big military, police/fire/prison presence you'll see these all over. Also certain church communities, certain freelancer type industries, (yoga contractors, photographers) etc.

I've noticed that "military, police/fire/prison" families and some church communities like to "support our own" and buy from "locally owned businesses". I think MLMs allow people to buy what they think is a locally owned business that they believe will return dividends to their own community. Sadly the dividends that MLMs return are mostly negative (debt, friction of social bonds, etc).

> I think MLMs allow people to buy what they think is a locally owned business that they believe will return dividends to their own community.

This would be the sane selling point for people who aren't susceptible to cult following. I was tricked into going to one of these meetings and at first I thought this is what it was. I was envisioning a sort of Amazon meets Costco scheme where you can get greater discounts with the more bulk that you buy. That's not keeping money in the community, but at least it's saving money in a community buying pool.

The first speaker at the meeting even got into a small business presentation which had nothing to do with MLM. I thought he did great. Then came the preacher, and everything fell into place. This is some sort of scam.

I would have been fine with the thing if it would have been a group buying thing where you save money AND stuff gets delivered to your door. I never did get far enough to see if there would have been any savings though.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#79

Post by hedvig »

jbob2000 wrote: post #16
elil17 wrote: post #2

This article doesn’t dig into the details, but these companies are really vicious. They aggressively recruit at my college and I’ve seen them to convince students to take what they would have spent on next semesters tuition and use it to buy “inventory” (i.e. more products than they’ll ever be able to resell) instead. These things ruin people’s lives

How do you craft a law to make this illegal though? And then how do you enforce the law? How do you bring these companies to justice? A fool and his money are easily parted. If those students didn't blow their tuition on MLM garbage, they'd have blown it on something else. I'm sure there's a kid somewhere who blew his tuition making ridiculous option trades based on something he read on r/wallstreetbets.

I don't get this common mindset here that people should just be left to the wolves. It's disgusting

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#80

Post by kjs3 »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #76
kjs3 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They wouldn't be MLMs in any recognizable sense?

I mean what if there were no centralized retailers, everybody would be encouraged to re-sell, everybody would be rewarded for distributing to other active re-sellers, people receiving abnormally high passive income from their networks because of their high position in the distribution hierarchy would be taxed to reward active minors. At the same time businesses producing goods (rather than distributing tem) and servi…

Oh, I see what you mean. Then my answer (not facetious) would be "because that would suck". I don't want to be a micro-distributor, I don't know a lot of people outside of sale that would think that's awesome, and if there's anything MLM has proven is that buying exclusively from your friends/acquaintances/neighbors is a good way to ruin relationships.

Sure...there's a more equitable scheme to equalize distribution of wealth, but please don't let this be it.

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