Pyramid Schemes (And the idiots who embrace them...)

FenderPusher

FenderPusher

Beardcore Apologist
Over the past 10 years, I have been asked about a half-dozen times to work for Amway, Ignite and every other retarded name for a pyramid scheme you can think of. Couple of my more gullible friends get sucked into it, only to end up spending more money and time than what it's worth. The latest is my boss, who despite me telling him I'm not interested, keeps sending me emails about exciting opportunities and meetings with the executive director of sales for the company. Besides this being a massive conflict of interest, Jesus tapdancing christ, fuck face, I'M NOT FUCKING INTERESTED.

:facepalm:
 
Do you live in an area with a lot of religious conservatives? Utah is the MLM capital of America; Amway hails from southwestern Michigan, which is so conservative as to make Utah look like San Francisco.
 
I live in the Appalachian bible belt crotch between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, also known as Pennsyltucky.
 
I lost my best friend to Quixtar/Amway. 23 years of friendship and now it's superficial at best. We talk maybe three tomes a year. He was the groom at last summer's ninja turtle wedding fiasco.
 
I always wondered what kind of people went for these kind of schemes. I've never been asked about one before, other than one of the maintenance guys at work who sells oil and oil filters as what I suspect is some type of pyramid scheme, and he was just trying to sell oil and not recruit me to join.
 
Ahh yes... Good ol' Provo, Utah... Apparently the most desirable place to live, and MLM capital of the world... What a coincidence...

Let's see, back I was 15 in 1979, when there were a whole bunch of private pyramid schemes going on, and people were trying to get me to join, it occurred to me who was the winner in these... The guy who starts it... So, I started a $5 scheme in my high school, and made around 80 bucks, if I recall...

So, I learned at a young age that America is one giant crumbling pyramid scheme that has to recruit more citizens to keep the assholes at the top nice and fat...
 
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FenderPusher said:
Over the past 10 years, I have been asked about a half-dozen times to work for Amway, Ignite and every other retarded name for a pyramid scheme you can think of. Couple of my more gullible friends get sucked into it, only to end up spending more money and time than what it's worth. The latest is my boss, who despite me telling him I'm not interested, keeps sending me emails about exciting opportunities and meetings with the executive director of sales for the company. Besides this being a massive conflict of interest, Jesus tapdancing christ, fuck face, I'M NOT FUCKING INTERESTED.

:facepalm:
Click to expand...

There is something really super wrong with a boss sending emails at work about another side business.

Someone needs a good kick in the taint methinks.
 
Tiltsta said:
I always wondered what kind of people went for these kind of schemes. I've never been asked about one before, other than one of the maintenance guys at work who sells oil and oil filters as what I suspect is some type of pyramid scheme, and he was just trying to sell oil and not recruit me to join.
Click to expand...

The reason they're so popular among religious conservatives is that there's a very high degree of trust among members of their faith communities--usually accompanied by an equivalent distrust of "the world." So, it's very easy for one member of a congregation to prey upon the confidence of another.

You also have a lot of pyramid schemes in economically deprived places where the returns to honest work are perceived as being minimal. (Great example: post-communist countries, where gangsters swept in to fill the void left by the state.)
 
No facepalm big enough for this one.

As I have told several people - in my lifetime I have had more total strangers attempt to get me to join Amway than I have to convert to any religious organization. I actually have gone to the 'pitch' meetings, and one of the big 'rah rah' Amway meetings where they fly in one of the top dogs to give their story. I kept hearing the same thing - 'probably in another year I will be able to quit my job and just do Amway (or insert MLM name here) full time!' And the never do.

One exception. And old friend of my wife's Mom wanted to pitch us his companies MLM stuff. They sell health related products and do actually have good products - at inflated prices. But to his credit he whipped out copies of his last four monthly checks from his corporate office. He was pulling down over six grand a month with this organization, and this was about 17 years ago. We didn't go for it but at least it was a real guy making real money.

Now I won't give anyone 10 seconds even to talk to me about them.
 
My mother inlaw started selling Melaleuca products some years ago.
The products themselves were actually quite good, but it took her a year to figure out that she was losing money doing it. :facepalm:

Of course, she fell hard for Y2K and now she's freaking out about 2012.

EG
 
Elias Graves said:
My mother inlaw started selling Melaleuca products some years ago.
The products themselves were actually quite good, but it took her a year to figure out that she was losing money doing it. :facepalm:

Of course, she fell hard for Y2K and now she's freaking out about 2012.

EG
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By no means am I calling your mom an idiot, I was just pissed at my boss when I made this thread. :embarrassed:

Like I said, some of my close friends got suckered into it. Some quit, some still trying to make that EASY MONEY.
 
FenderPusher said:
By no means am I calling your mom an idiot, I was just pissed at my boss when I made this thread. :embarrassed:

Like I said, some of my close friends got suckered into it. Some quit, some still trying to make that EASY MONEY.
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Mother in law. cop0
My mom would never get involved in that shit.

Mother in law is a great lady and quite book smart. Not so much with the common sense.

EG
 
Elias Graves said:
Mother in law. cop0
My mom would never get involved in that shit.

Mother in law is a great lady and quite book smart. Not so much with the common sense.

EG
Click to expand...

2hej4vl.jpg
 
my boss is the poster child for the Society of People Without a Fucking Shred of Common Sense.

I came pretty close to striking him yesterday, actually.
 
Update!

My boss just sent ANOTHER email saying I know you've reviewed the information and said you're not interested, but please try and make it to the meeting with the executive director of sales (about an hour from here on a Saturday evening) to get a better idea. I responded saying I'm still not interested but thanks for the offer... my co-worker just replied "Steve, you are starting to piss me off..."

:grin::grin::grin:

Best email reply to a boss I've ever seen... We'll see what happens from here.
 
Lost friends.... yes. Then the wife got into it. Stupid Noni Juice. Her boss got her into it. Asshole almost cost me my marriage. The more I tried to tell her it was all bs, the harder she worked at it, and all it was doing was costing a shitload of money. All I could do was stand back out of the way and watch her crash and burn. She did, and she's better for it. She won't be fooled again.

Now my sister... she's a type A personality and those types seem to fall for this stuff so easily. I can't tell you how many of these "get rich quick" MLM schemes she's fallen for.

I went to what I thought was a "party" once, we were all there, some dude had everyone's attention. He was building up to something but wouldn't tell anyone what. I knew it was Amway, I yelled at the guy, "just tell us you're peddling Amway".. he got pissed and left.
 
My Aunt came to our house with my mom once and she kept telling us about this great movie she had with her and how we just had to watch it, it was so great.

SO Greg and I, thinking it's an actual movie let her throw it in the machine, and it turns out to be this loong miserable swill about how all you have to do to get everything you ever wanted in llife was send this guy $20 bucks and then imagine that you had everything you wanted. If you hoped hard enough you would get it. It was so bizarre, and she so totally bought into it, I just couldn't speak.

It was so ridiculous, literally this guy said if you wanted something, you shouldn't go out and work for it or anything, you should just cut out a picture of it or draw it and put it under your pillow or in your wallet and then you should just hope as hard as you could and if you were oding it right, you would get it. And if you took his classes and read his books and watched his movies you could learn how to hope for things better.

I cannot believe that people really fall for this stuff, but she was totally hooked, she wanted us to buy into her franchise of it or some crap. That was the last time I ever spoke to her.
 
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