Friends going MLM quickly become ex-friends.
14 Likes
seems a bit of a generalization, but an interesting observation nonetheless
2 Likes
The Seattle Weekly ran a special issue on MLM and other scams in 1999
the datestamps on the articles say 2006 but i think that’s when they were moved to a new server or something
Be your own boss! Set your own hours! Work from the comfort and privacy of your own home! Realize unlimited Potential income! Sound familiar? For those of us without options in the go-go IPO economy, the promises of late-night infomercials and get-rich-quick schemes sound increasingly attractive. And why not? Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire? Problem is, when you answer the come-hither ad or heed the call of some alluring new “business opportunity,” you may end up feeling like more of a sucker than a success. It’s the dark underside to our present prosperity, a secret economy devoted to selling promise and profiting from desperation.
12 Likes
Yes, doTerra is all over my daughter’s school right now. Parents and teachers both. The good news is that the kids can’t stand it, so hopefully they’ll be essential-oil-proof when they get older.
7 Likes
I view it as an undead plague. Where the dream is to be a powerful Vampire who gets to rule a legion of submissive sires, but most end up as just zombies who at most turn one or two formerly loved ones.
13 Likes
MLMs’ popularity in the U.S. do reflect this. In and of themselves, though, they’re just scams and cults.
6 Likes
I second that!
Jeez, with a few edits the same issue could probably focus on problems with jobs in the “gig economy.”
10 Likes
Had to block one of my cousins because it’s plexus plexus plexus on her Facebook all the fucking time. After struggling through IVF for her two boys, she got pregnant with her long-desired daughter after she started with Plexus and now shills it as a “cure” for infertility.
8 Likes
Hmmm…after she began a MLM, she became pregnant.
My very extended family is large, living proof that poverty equals fecundity.
2 Likes
Pretty good - I just watched it thanks to your link. But also annoying that the Libertarian duo used their MLM show as a chance to take a swipe at social security. The stats about success, that I also think I saw in another BB thread, about the odds of roulette being better than working an MLM gig are pretty depressing.
3 Likes
One Friday my then-wife came home from her dental assistant job saying that her boss, the dentist, and her boss’ husband wanted to talk to me about a potential business opportunity. I said sure, figuring that they wanted my help in a matter related to physics or technology. So they show up the next morning, dressed like they were headed to Church. We sit down for tea and the husband launches into some sort of spiel about opportunities, synergies and growth. It was a speech devoid of actual content. After 5 minutes of this, I interrupt him and say, “I have a question … Does this opportunity in any way leverage my specific expertise in physics or technology?” He pauses a bit and then says, “No, not really,” I responded, “Well then, I’m not interested.” He got really agitated, “But you haven’t even heard what it is yet…” I said, “I don’t need to. If it doesn’t use my skills, you could use anyone. That sounds like some sort of scam like Amway.” Turns out it was Amway. They pretty well stormed out in anger.
26 Likes
A more rewarding and less punishing at-home business: eBay trading. I traded in old lenses and camera gear for some years and averaged 200% profit, often buying from old gals who’d accumulated good stuff at thrift shops, yard sales, etc, and selling to overseas buyers who’d missed the bargains. Not a living wage (because I wasn’t at it full time) but it helped.
That didn’t alienate those close to me. My sister did similar trading in posters and printed ephemera. Gal down the road sells vintage farm equipment online. MLM seems to exploit the desperate and unaware. Other low-cost opportunities abound.
Yes, eBay sucks in its way. So, exploit it.
7 Likes
On a technical course I took some years ago, the two instructors said they were having a get-together in the evening and had an interesting business opportunity to present to us. Being a snarky sort of guy in those days (I’ve reformed since), I jokingly said, “It’s Amway, right?”.
Both of them gave me a dead-eyed stare, and the room temperature dropped by about ten degrees.
The evening session wasn’t well-attended (I like to think I had some responsibility for that), but some of the class went. Sure enough…
18 Likes
There was a point where I had several friends shilling Rodan+Fields cosmetics on facebook, often mentioning that the most successful R+F sales consultants get a free Lexus. I came across an article that explained that the “free” Lexus is really just R+F covering the payments on a Lexus lease so long as you (and your minions) keep up your sales above some ridiculous level. But YOU have to sign the lease (not R+F), so if your sales fall, you’re stuck with an $800/mo car lease for a few years. Which sounds like a pretty shitty sales incentive to me.
Anyway I started posting that article as a comment on every single R+F post my friends would put up. I stopped seeing R+F posts pretty quickly, although I suspect it wasn’t because they stopped posting (more likely they followed some guide put out by R+F on how to create a list of people who are excluded from seeing your R+F posts).
12 Likes
9 Likes
Shortly after college, a family who were friends of my parents were giving me room to live for a couple months while I tried to get any job making enough to afford a room elsewhere. They were great people, but at one point did try to get me involved in an MLM for some company I’d never heard of before or again.
I’d never heard of MLMs at the time, but was leery of any job that offered easy wealth and seemed too good to be true. Major tipoffs were:
- All the literature seemed to be big on enthusiasm and advancement and low on job details.
- It sounded like I’d very quickly be in some kind of managerial role, and I couldn’t figure out if so, then who would be doing the grunt work?
- They had actual products (basically household supplies IIRC). But it took awhile before I could figure out what those were, or what advantage they were supposed to confer over standard supplies. It just struck me as weird that so much literature was dedicated to the job and the products seemed like an afterthought.
- I’d only really heard of snail-mail pyramid schemes, but this sounded vaguely similar.
So I kindly bowed out and obtained a series of pretty low wage jobs which didn’t make me feel as icky. Fortunately the folks were understanding and didn’t press the issue.
15 Likes
This is one reason why military and women forced into “stay at home mom” roles are such a big target. They want to be salespeople or entrepreneurs but lack the access to those jobs
4 Likes
Yep. Agree 100%. If stay-at-home wasn’t fetishized and/ or economically necessary these women would have access to real jobs.
2 Likes
It’s undeniably a generalization; “generalization”, of itself, does not imply correctness or lack thereof =).
1 Like
