Here's what I know:
The products are of dubious quality, and can be bought for much cheaper elsewhere.
The majority of people who end up being distributors absorb a net loss, and given that many already come from financially unstable backgrounds, that loss is particularly painful.
The largest sellers in the chain either got in super early, or make more money off of ancillary products (seminars, etc.) than actual sales.
That sounds shady as hell as best, downright predatory at worst, and all of the "Yeah, it might be bad, but so is X" arguments in the world don't absolve it.
I guess where the real decision fork is to what extent you feel the Government is responsible for making it harder for people to make dumb decisions by shutting down the companies that prey upon them.
People also tend to lean heavily on their personal social network, which often alienates them from their personal friend base. And has limited supply before the success you do get from that runs out.
And don't forget that you're often not the first one in your network to start peddling this garbage.
My parents did it for awhile, after being turned onto it by another woman in the small town we lived in. But guess what? That same woman was already selling to 90% of our potential customers. Everyone who was going to buy a case of Glister toothpaste already had one sitting in their garage; who were we supposed to sell to?
The answer to the rhetorical question is, nobody. We brushed our teeth with our shitty investment for about a year, then wrote the whole thing off as a failed experiment that luckily didn't bankrupt us.
Here's what I know: The products are of dubious quality, and can be bought for much cheaper elsewhere. The majority of people who end up being distributors absorb a net loss, and given that many already come from financially unstable backgrounds, that loss is particularly painful. The largest sellers in the chain either got in super early, or make more money off of ancillary products (seminars, etc.) than actual sales.
That sounds shady as hell as best, downright predatory at worst, and all of the "Yeah, it might be bad, but so is X" arguments in the world don't absolve it.
I guess where the real decision fork is to what extent you feel the Government is responsible for making it harder for people to make dumb decisions by shutting down the companies that prey upon them.