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The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

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Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#51

Post by Spooky23 »

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).

They also have shift work husbands and are more likely to have a female spouse at home when kids are young. Pension systems make it very difficult to get out of the job after a few years.

If you go to a police or fire station and ask, easily 30% of the wives are nurses, as it’s a job with super flexible schedules. MLM gets pitched as a way to make some extra dollars.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#52

Post by Spooky23 »

bigtex wrote: post #27
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…

I remember working retail in 98-99 and an older couple came in. They starting to talk to me about starting an internet business and I was interested as I didn't know any better and the web was all the rage at the time. They came to my parents house and it was basically a version of Amazon Subscribe and Save where they would send you items on a monthly schedule. It sounds like the same e-commerce business idea you enc…

That was the same pitch I got, you triggered the memory space in my brain. The company was Quixstar, which is/was the Amway online of that era.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#53

Post by Forbo »

Osiris wrote: post #45
yellowapple wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been raised Mormon, it ain't surprising in the slightest that so many of these are concentrated in and around Utah/Idaho. There are a multitude of factors at play here: - Like you mentioned, door-to-door proselytism translates well to door-to-door sales. - Mormon communities tend to be very tight-knit and immediately trusting of fellow Mormons, so once you have a critical mass of LDS followers selling your "in…

> The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints actively discourages any sort of rational individual thought As an active member, I can say that this comment is untrue. The Church actively encourages education. A simple example is the amount of money it pours into the BYU education system. There is a big emphasis on acquiring knowledge and wisdom. I actually think that the first two factors are more important and m…

There is a big emphasis on acquiring the "right" knowledge and wisdom. Anything thing factually based that runs afoul of the teachings of the Church are immediately smeared as being "anti-church literature peddled by the Adversary."

For numerous examples, see pretty much everything cited in Letter to a CES Director, despite all of this being sourced first-hand from Church documents.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#54

Post by pkaye »

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…

I used to gets people of the same ethnicity as me befriend me at the mall and elsewhere. Usually they would call me a week later and chitchat before dropping their pitch about whatever MLM business they running. I got used to it and started string them along and waste their time.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#56

Post by mikeyouse »

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.

Sure pays to be at the top of that pyramid.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#57

Post by lisper »

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.

"Fun" is not the adjective that leaps first to my mind to describe this fact.

Re: The MLM Epidemic in 13 Maps

#60

Post by yellowapple »

Osiris wrote: post #45
yellowapple wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been raised Mormon, it ain't surprising in the slightest that so many of these are concentrated in and around Utah/Idaho. There are a multitude of factors at play here: - Like you mentioned, door-to-door proselytism translates well to door-to-door sales. - Mormon communities tend to be very tight-knit and immediately trusting of fellow Mormons, so once you have a critical mass of LDS followers selling your "in…

> The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints actively discourages any sort of rational individual thought As an active member, I can say that this comment is untrue. The Church actively encourages education. A simple example is the amount of money it pours into the BYU education system. There is a big emphasis on acquiring knowledge and wisdom. I actually think that the first two factors are more important and m…

> A simple example is the amount of money it pours into the BYU education system.

You mean the university system named after the guy who led the Mormons to Utah after Joseph Smith died? The one that's owned and operated by the CoJCoLDS? Gee, no connection or bias there, no siree.

There's an emphasis on acquiring "knowledge" and "wisdom" if and only if it happens to agree with Church doctrine and avoids being critical of the Church in any way. "Brigham Young University exists to provide education in an atmosphere consistent with Church ideals and principles."; BYU's words¹, not mine. Those principles would obviously include those outlined in scripture, which consequently includes enforcing Mormon doctrine as "the truth" with little to no room for compromise; this is consistent with BYU's Statement on Academic Freedom², where said "freedom" is implicitly (if not explicitly) stated to be only for those who believe in and obey the Church and its teachings to the letter. The AAUP has described at length³ BYU's frequent infringements on academic freedom for its faculty (typically by punishing those who teach things that might make the Church look bad, even if those things are factually correct).

My comment was somewhat hyperbolic, but it is indeed the truth. I know it's an unpleasant truth, and I know it conflicts with what the Church has taught us both, but it's a truth that unfortunately we can't afford to ignore.

----

¹: https://web.archive.org/web/20070927051804/http://ce.byu.edu...

²: https://web.archive.org/web/20070204112544/http://fc.byu.edu...

³: https://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/27EB0A08-8D25-4415-9E55-80...

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