the random musings not worthy of new thread thread

[Cerevant]

Plus, im now elgible for reparations

lol

Arrgh.  This means VIGY is black...

[rjs246]

Head of the Arkansas Democratic Committee was just shot. Suspect fled and was shot and killed by the police.

[Phanatic]

This guy I know has gotten into something called Market America. It's basically an Amway pyramid scheme made legal somehow. I even think the founder of Amway is running it or some shtein. I used to run into these Amway nuts in the Navy all the time. It's like a cult or something. Just farging weird and makes my skin crawl. I try to pin him down on how exactly he's making money and get nowhere. Anyway I ran into him the other day and just tried to catch up and have a chat and all he would talk about is his damn money lover cult that doesn't seem to have a real way to make money.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Head of the Arkansas Democratic Committee was just shot.

This should be moved to the "Dead in 2008" thread now.

This guy I know has gotten into something called Market America. It's basically an Amway pyramid scheme made legal somehow. I even think the founder of Amway is running it or some shtein. I used to run into these Amway nuts in the Navy all the time. It's like a cult or something. Just farging weird and makes my skin crawl. I try to pin him down on how exactly he's making money and get nowhere. Anyway I ran into him the other day and just tried to catch up and have a chat and all he would talk about is his damn money lover cult that doesn't seem to have a real way to make money.

I had an acquaintance that tried to get me into "Market America" as well.  Just like any of these other schemes, the only way to make money is to grift off the top of people *under* you.  And all you are trying to do is sell stuff people don't need, or stuff people can buy much more easily in another way.  No problem!

[Cerevant]

Amway is legal because they have product.  When my brother was in it, the pitch was that you do 3 things:
1) Join
2) Use product
3) Recruit others to do the same

The money comes from making commissions off of product used (and paid for) by your down-line.  It is still a pyramid in the sense that you could never have the down line income of the massively rich people at the top because there aren't enough people on the planet.

BTW, for those that haven't heard - Amway is now marketing itself as a "web company" called "Quixtar".  They pulled in a whole new generation of fanatics in the late 90s thinking they were part of the dot-com boom.

It works to a certain degree, but only if you are willing to alienate everyone you know and some people you don't.  I'd rather be a life insurance salesman.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

BTW, for those that haven't heard - Amway is now marketing itself as a "web company" called "Quixtar".  They pulled in a whole new generation of fanatics in the late 90s thinking they were part of the dot-com boom.

I have a buddy that got into Quixtar when he was finishing up college.  He didn't even know it was Amway.

[Rome]

I got into a similar scheme when I was younger.  I gave them all my money and got nothing of substance in return.

Plus because I left I'll end up going to a place after I die that won't be filled with unicorns & rainbows.

Poor me.

[Seabiscuit36]

We rented a house in the outerbanks for 10 from Rex Renfro who was a founder of Amway.  True Story

[Phanatic]

Amway's Pyramid scheme was declared illegal at one point because it only trickles up benefiting only those at the top. So MA has a way to trickle points in both directions or some such. It's all smoke and mirrors. Just seems so cult like when he talks about it.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

MA uses a BINARY PLAN.  The only thing that could be perceived to "trickle" down the chain is that you can only have two people DIRECTLY under you, so as you get a larger tree, you have to help out the folks underneath you by adding to their branch.

Still, those in early and at the top obviously have the distinct advantage.  Only, in Amway, you get a larger piece of the profits of people DIRECTLY under you, so newbies have to compete with those in their "up-line" also, which is a fantastic mess.

These are still pyramid schemes, regardless of the ways they've barely kept them in line with the law.

[Cerevant]

Amway's Pyramid scheme was declared illegal at one point because it only trickles up benefiting only those at the top. So MA has a way to trickle points in both directions or some such. It's all smoke and mirrors. Just seems so cult like when he talks about it.

Nope.  They just lied about how much money one would probably make.  Let me guess, someone from MA told you that?

In a 1979 court ruling,[7] the Federal Trade Commission found that Amway does not qualify as an illegal pyramid scheme since the main aim of the enterprise is the sale of product and money is paid only for business volume, personal and group. It did, however, order Amway to change several business practices and prohibited the company from misrepresenting the amount of profit, earnings or sales its distributors are likely to achieve with the business. Amway was ordered to accompany any such statements with the actual averages per distributor, pointing out that more than half of the distributors do not make any money, with the average distributor making less than $100 per month. The order was violated with a 1986 ad campaign, resulting in a $100,000 fine.[8]

[dis12]

real Bigfoot found - The Bigfoot searchers have promised an official announcement with "DNA evidence and photo evidence" at a 3 p.m. news conference in California today.

http://www.accessatlanta.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/accessatlanta/chatter/entries/2008/08/13/bigfoot_located_1.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

[General_Failure]

I bet he likes pork chops and applesauce.

[Phanatic]

Amway's Pyramid scheme was declared illegal at one point because it only trickles up benefiting only those at the top. So MA has a way to trickle points in both directions or some such. It's all smoke and mirrors. Just seems so cult like when he talks about it.

Nope.  They just lied about how much money one would probably make.  Let me guess, someone from MA told you that?

In a 1979 court ruling,[7] the Federal Trade Commission found that Amway does not qualify as an illegal pyramid scheme since the main aim of the enterprise is the sale of product and money is paid only for business volume, personal and group. It did, however, order Amway to change several business practices and prohibited the company from misrepresenting the amount of profit, earnings or sales its distributors are likely to achieve with the business. Amway was ordered to accompany any such statements with the actual averages per distributor, pointing out that more than half of the distributors do not make any money, with the average distributor making less than $100 per month. The order was violated with a 1986 ad campaign, resulting in a $100,000 fine.[8]

Yeah he was telling me that.

[rjs246]

real Bigfoot found - The Bigfoot searchers have promised an official announcement with "DNA evidence and photo evidence" at a 3 p.m. news conference in California today.

http://www.accessatlanta.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/accessatlanta/chatter/entries/2008/08/13/bigfoot_located_1.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

I hope this is true. This, combined with the secret society of tens of thousands of Gorillas that was just discovered, would make me happy. Human arrogance has convinced us all that we know everything about everything and nature can't do anything to surprise us anymore... take that stupid humans!