From: cdb@waikato.ac.nz (Craig D. Beere)
Newsgroups: alt.business.multi-level
Subject: Re: MLM Fairness Disclosure (was Nuskin)
Date: 2 Oct 92 15:01:19 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

Well here's my entry into the turgid waters of MLM-hating (not to be confused
with religion-hating, though you would be forgiven for confusing the two!).

In article <1992Sep29.210832.4289@odin.corp.sgi.com>,
 bglazier@buffalo.asd.sgi.com (Bill Glazier) writes:
>Nothing is wrong with dreaming.  You and I both have our own dreams.  But, most
>MLM owners/managers target the most economically vulnerable segment of society,
>and in their marketing pitch casually drop how many gazillionaires MLM (or
>their company in particular) have created.

I am intrigued when I hear you use the word 'most'.  What justification do you
have for using it?  Have you talked to most of the several million (hundred
million?) MLM operators worldwide?

>The clear objective is to get
>the potential enrollee to think he is just a few quick, easy steps away from
>being independently wealthy.  

Oh really?  My MLM does not do this.  Neither do any of the others I have
looked at.  All have stressed most emphatically that this is not
get-rich-quick.  If you want the rewards you gotta work for them.  Same as in
everything in life.  Where have you seen differently?

>Instead of hard data, 
>what new prospects get is the psychobabble, a few selected incidents where
>someone made a lot of $$, and a hard sell.  

Again, don't generalise.  Also again, where have you seen this?
 
>(BTW, I've
>yet to see an MLM product receive a consumer award of any national
>signifigance).  Lots of personal testimonials, but never a Consumer
>Reports award.  Seems world class products aren't that important to these
>kinds of companies.   

Is a United Nations Environmental Stewardship Award important?  The company
that backs the MLM I'm in recieved one in 1989.
 
>Microsoft and its employees deliver value to customers.  They don't
>need to hard sell their salespeople to get them to join.    

That's cause their salespeople have JOBS not BUSINESSES.  Different situation
altogether.  You cannot compare MLMs to jobs.  

>If you start your own business, you begin with
>100% of the equity.  

So?  The same occurs with a MLM.  I put money up front to buy (1) the right to
purchase products from the support company at wholesale, and (2) the right to
join in the profit sharing, and (3) the right to offer other people the same as
what I have.

>In MLM, you begin on Day 1 with a whole upline of
>people who have a legal claim to a large chunk of your business value, even
>if they do NOTHING other than sign you up.  

Same position with all the shareholders in a company you may work for.  They
get money based on your performance without doing a thing for it.  Is this
immoral?  Same position with everyone up the management chain from you in a
traditional job.

And note that their claim may not be legal.  In a properly strctured MLM you
never automatically get a share of downline's work (if you did it would be a
pyramid).  You always have to qualify (how is dependant on the specific MLM).

> You can call MLM'ers anything you want.

OK.  I'll call them Fred. :-)

>I'm after those that mislead....

Yeah, well they are not by any stretch of the imagination limited to MLMs.

Bad apples exist EVERYWHERE.  Just take a look one day...

{*******************************************************************************
** Craig D. Beere  (a.k.a. ++Byron)
** University of Waikato, New Zealand
** CDB@waikato.ac.nz
*}
{$I standard_disclaimer}
{$I witty_quote}
Newsgroups: alt.business.multi-level