"Buy 1 for yourself and get the chance to sell your friends and family 5 and get your downline started!" We examine the multi-level marketing industry, where only the people who come up with the ideas make any money, and everybody else is left unhappy, broke, and tired of reading scripts and selling overpriced vitamins and similarly worthless products. Includes Global Prosperity, Pinnacle Quest International, IRS Codebusters, Stratia, and other new Global Prosperity scams.
So a friend of mine called me tonight and said that one of her client's cousins was trying to get her to sell "Melaleuca." Essentially Amway with an environmentalist slant. Fortunately she was bright enough to call me to explain it before she signed up for anything or gave away any cash. After about 10 words were out of her mouth I said, "It's multi-level marketing. It's a scam." She said, "I had a feeling it was."
The cousin is supposed to call her and mail her something about the program. I told her to be prepared for a hard sell before the woman gives up. Hope she's up to the task of saying NO.
Apparently you can get the "kit" for only $1 if you sign up "tomorrow." What a deal. And I don't even think they pay you for your sales or your recruitments--they just give you discounts on the overpriced crap they force you to buy every month. Is that right? How does that fall into the rule that 70% of all sales must be to outside customers?
And the guy who runs it is on the Forbes richest 400 people in the world, or some such.
I think we all should start an MLM! They're not technically illegal. Let's do it! Hell, even Trump's doing it now.
That's tea tree oil. A useful "essential" oil for fungus and other infections, but fairly cheap, go to your local co-op or health food store, get the product for under $10.
It brings to mind Young Living Essential Oils. Admittedly Gary Young has good quality control, some say he has the best product in the business if you believe in his theory that "hope is a molecule". So a lot of his combos have positive names like "Peace and Calming", "Joy" etc.. Naturopaths warn that these products can be toxic in the doses he recommends...
'There are two kinds of injustice: the first is found in those who do an injury, the second in those who fail to protect another from injury when they can.' (Roman. Cicero, De Off. I. vii)
'Choose loss rather than shameful gains.' (Chilon Fr. 10. Diels)
True, though I think that the Idaho-based "Melaleuca, Inc." or whatever it's called, run by a guy named Vandersloot, sells more than tea tree oil now. I think they have a full range of products from weight loss supplements to laundry detergent. Just repackaged/rebranded standard private label stuff that's been marked up 100% at least.
Young Living has an extremely successful MLM business model, and though I generally regard MLM as contemptible, YLEO has done a good job using it to promote a novel and quality product: http://www.youngliving.com/en_US/index.html
Gary Young has a movement that is a little cult-like, and he regularly denounces mainstream medicine as doing more harm than good. I think he has a son who wanted to go the "patriot" defiance approach with government and taxes, but the father over-ruled him and ousted him from the leadership.
I have spoken with competant herbalists and naturopaths with possible health issues arising from taking essential oils internally or excessive external application, and they were very concerned with the health problems which could ensue. I also once asked Ron Paul about FDA regulation of nutritional supplements that could damage the kidneys, burden the liver, etc.. He shrugged off the idea that we should be concerned that the FDA would need to regulate dietary supplements--he said there are a lot of things that could damage the kidneys...
'There are two kinds of injustice: the first is found in those who do an injury, the second in those who fail to protect another from injury when they can.' (Roman. Cicero, De Off. I. vii)
'Choose loss rather than shameful gains.' (Chilon Fr. 10. Diels)
yeah I pretty much frown on anything even remotely associated with MLM. If something is close enough to MLM to tell people that it's not MLM, then it's too close IMHO. It's like having "just a touch of the crabs." One crab is one too many. I wouldn't get near anything doing "personal marketing" for its products or services, even if those products or services were spectacular.
And I, personally, am a fan of western medicine. It saved my life as a kid (appendicitis) as well as the lives of both my parents (cancer).
Quackwatch wrote:By 1981, Young moved to Spokane and opened the Golden Six Health Club in Sprague, Washington. Although he had no training in obstetrics or midwifery, he decided to deliver his wife's baby underwater in a whirlpool bath at the health club. He left the baby under water for almost an hour, causing the death of an apparently healthy infant on September 4, 1982. Although the coroner said that the baby would have lived if she had been delivered in a conventional manner, Young was never charged in that case.
That's just revolting.
Survivor of the Dark Agenda Whistleblower Award, August 2012.
It's a bit mysterious to me why MLM scams are able to expand in sales...Those on the top of the pyramid make out like bandits, laugh all the way to the bank, while the foot soldiers and newbies get bonuses and incentives. Look at Young Living's panel of testimonials, from silver to "diamond" executives: http://www.youngliving.com/en_US/abunda ... index.html
In order to maintain the excitement level for sales people, new products and CDs are sent out and the exclusive D. Gary Young issues pep talks for those sales people on the front ranks.
What about the uncomfortable questions about YLEO? I'm sure that they have artful ways to de-fuse "negativity". We have to be positive, always look on the bright side, etc.. This is simply not an honest way to live. http://features.csmonitor.com/books/200 ... ght-sided/
'There are two kinds of injustice: the first is found in those who do an injury, the second in those who fail to protect another from injury when they can.' (Roman. Cicero, De Off. I. vii)
'Choose loss rather than shameful gains.' (Chilon Fr. 10. Diels)
One of the problems is that the internet is so infested with MLM hucksters that (except for here) you can't have an intelligent discussion about it without legions of scammers coming in and trying to convince you how great it is.
The vast majority of people who think MLM is lame simply have better things to talk about than MLM. 99.99% of the people who have any interest in the topic... are the ones selling the crap!
