Ponzinomics, the Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing by Robert L. FitzPatrick

Author:Robert L. FitzPatrick [FitzPatrick, Robert L.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: FitzPatrick Management Inc.
Published: 2020-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

Unprintable

Nevertheless, the impossible “median average income” of $2,400 was widely reprinted by the news media for years. In the past, colleagues and I attempted corrections but soon concluded it is futile. We realized that the news media would never report that millions of Americans are being lured into an “endless chain” income proposition, in which purchasing products is just the price to participate. Journalists would not write that millions are trapped in a recruiting scheme that promises to pay cash rewards, but in fact virtually no one who signs up each year ever gains any net income at all or that the promised fountain of “unlimited” income is just the investors’ own funds, transferred inside a fixed system. It is unprintable. A Big Lie, it bears repeating, is one so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”

One of my personal experiences with the media is typical of the experiences of my colleagues.157 An independent journalist at The New York Times wrote a piece for the Sunday edition on March 14, 2009, entitled, “Direct Sales as a Recession Fallback.”158 It reported that in a time of long unemployment lines, ruined saving accounts, and plummeting real estate values, there was, happily, a “fallback” for the average person in “direct selling.” DSA spokeswoman Amy Robinson was given the space to inform millions of readers that the direct selling industry is “growing” at more than 4% a year, without noting the quitting rate. Robinson also touted the $2,400 median income number.

In this uplifting and reassuring article, I am quoted sourly and confusingly, warning about pay plans that transfer most of the rewards to the top recruiters.i The article notes that “some” multi-level marketing companies might be pyramid schemes and one MLM that is a member of the Direct Selling Association is being “investigated.”

I followed up with the journalist to point out the errors in her article, which would likely mislead many people to invest time and money in “multi-level marketing.” I quoted her sentence, “The median income from direct selling is $2,400 annually, according to the association,” and wrote to her asking for a correction based on what I knew.

Real data, not just claims based on surveys but available in disclosures and court documents from the MLM companies, I explained, show that, on average, people make no profit from “direct selling,” the opposite of what the Times article led readers to think.

The Times didn’t make a correction, though the “median income” statistic is nowhere to be found now on the Direct Selling Association‘s website.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.