$150 For A Plasma TV? A Bad Bet
from the do-the-math dept
Knowing some friends who have been sucked up into incredibly destructive (both personally and economically) pyramid schemes I have an almost violent reaction to anyone who tells me they're getting involved in any sort of multi-level marketing scheme, no matter how "legal" they believe they are. They're bad in so many ways. It doesn't take a genius to do the basic math and realize that you run out of customers to make the scheme work pretty damn quickly. Worse, you're "competing" against all of your "customers", without the slightest competitive advantage. It's a horrible business model in so many ways, and is simply designed to separate suckers from their money. The latest twist on these scams is the online "matrix" system, where people "buy" a super expensive ebook which is available elsewhere for free, for a spot in the matrix. When twenty people join beneath them, they get an expensive gift (like a plasma TV). However, the pyramid expands incredibly quickly, such that only the first few people who sign up are likely to see anything for the $100 or so they plunk down for a worthless ebook. It's simply a system for transferring money from the mathematically challenged followers to the people who start the pyramid. However, it seems that these matrix systems are catching on very quickly, and people are even sneaking fake auctions into eBay telling people they can get a plasma TV for cheap. What's scary is how many people are explained the math behind this, and still enter - not quite grasping that they're simply throwing money away.
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People...
It's the same reason that people waste thousands of dollars on the lottery - except in a pyramidesque scheme the sucker gets sold the vision that they can change their odds by getting more people involved. Many of the schemes have a big focus on self-improvement / motivation methods for this reason (I had a friend - only 20 at the time - who had cue-cards plastered all over his house with little phrases on them "I will retire by June 21, 1998" "I am a special person and good at what I do". These were based on suggestions from one of the seminars he attended)
People buy into the vision that if they can only sign up a few friends (who in turn sign up a few friends) they will be able to live a life of ease while doing very little work (a very attractive concept to those susceptible). The thing is, that those who end up becoming rich off of these types of structures tend to work reasonably hard - particularly at the beginning. Ie it's not enough to be in at the beginning, but I've never heard a pitch that was honest about that fact.
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I got suckered
I hadn't done any research, but someone I work closely with and trusted (notice the past tense) talked me into joining as it was "the next big thing".
I tagged along to three presentations by people who were supposedly wealthy from Amway and here's the basic synopsis of their presentation:
* We're rich
* Our house is full of Amway products
* People come to our house and see Amway products and they want to buy Amway products
* You should fill your house with Amway products and then people will buy Amway products from you and you'll be rich, too
What they fail to mention is that every Amway product you buy is just more money in their product.
The single underlying theme in all their presentations and all their promotional materials is "you should buy more Amway products".
The funny thing is that the people who talked me into doing this told me that they planned to retire on their Amway proceeds by now, and their both still working. I guess that's all my fault for not buying more Amway products. :-)
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Re: I got suckered
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People are stupid...
It is my strong belief that while the world's population is growing at a exponential rate, the IQ pool simply isn't...resulting in dumber and dumber people and fewer and fewer geniuses.
That and morons seem to breed a heck of a lot more than intelligent people...so darwin won't help us there either. :(
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Re: People are stupid...
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Re: People are stupid...
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Re: People are stupid...
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Re: People are stupid...
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No Subject Given
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Matrix Watch
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Re: Matrix Watch
Be careful of Watch Dog, he filed a lawsuit, launched a website, and personally attacks all those "stupid" enough, translates "not as smart as he is". He also sued several payment processors at the same time. All based on the premise there is some chance (not) involved thus claiming matrices are lotteries. (NOT).
As most observe, the rules, regulations, lists, numbers....are all available. You should read what you purchase, it's all right there usually.
Live a little, enjoy life.
Pity the soul that has to crush all that are less than.....
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MatrixWatch.org
The Definitive site on the matrix sites. Great information source
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to whom it my concern
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Re: to whom it my concern
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Amway VS Bigtickettowealth
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