Hey, Come to the Meeting Tonight, Give Up Your Day Job

Hey, Come to the Meeting Tonight, Give Up Your Day Job

If one person recruited two people, and those two people recruited two people, by the 28th round the entire adult population of the US would be involved.

Welcome to illogic underlying “pyramid marketing,” “multi-level marketing,” “network marketing,” all children of the Ponzi Scheme in 1920 and, more recently, by that pillar of ethics, Bernie Madoff.

Only the people in the first round or two of these dishonest undertakings—putatively selling soap, or phone cards, or gas additives—make money while everyone else loses their shirt. The “get rich quick” lure distorts people’s judgment with the promise of easy riches.

I know of few other pursuits where people attempt to make money by cheating their friends.