Little bosses everywhere how the pyramid scheme shaped America
"A groundbreaking work of history and reportage that unveils the stranger-than-fiction world of multilevel marketing, from the shadowy cabals at the top to the strivers at the bottom, whose deferred dreams churn a massive money-making scam that has remade American society. Multilevel marketing compa...
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| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Crown,
[2025]
|
| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: | |
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| 003 | OCoLC | ||
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| 035 | |a (OCoLC)1503539065 |z (OCoLC)1516205691 | ||
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| 100 | 1 | |a Read, Bridget, |d 1990- |e author. | |
| 245 | 1 | 0 | |a Little bosses everywhere : |b how the pyramid scheme shaped America / |c Bridget Read. |
| 250 | |a First edition. | ||
| 264 | 1 | |a New York : |b Crown, |c [2025] | |
| 300 | |a xv, 351 pages ; |c 25 cm | ||
| 336 | |a text |b txt |2 rdacontent | ||
| 337 | |a unmediated |b n |2 rdamedia | ||
| 338 | |a volume |b nc |2 rdacarrier | ||
| 504 | |a Includes bibliographical references and index. | ||
| 505 | 0 | |a Introduction: Not not a pyramid scheme -- Part 1: Vitamins. A quintessential American attitude -- The salesman and the shrink -- How to cheat death -- Wealth crusade -- Mind cure -- Part 2: Cosmetics. Beauty show -- An organization of attractive women -- Frogs in a barrel -- Part 3: Soap. American way -- Bad apples -- Darkest hour -- The industry owes Amway -- Part 4: Hope. People quit -- The challenge of the '80s -- Stinkin' thinkers -- Part 5: Health. Network marketing liberates the world -- Lose weight now, ask me how -- No rock bottom -- Part 6: Freedom. Postregulatory world -- Change or remain employed -- The box -- Soar like never before -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index. | |
| 520 | |a "A groundbreaking work of history and reportage that unveils the stranger-than-fiction world of multilevel marketing, from the shadowy cabals at the top to the strivers at the bottom, whose deferred dreams churn a massive money-making scam that has remade American society. Multilevel marketing companies like Amway, Mary Kay, and Herbalife advertise the ultimate business opportunity: the chance to be your own boss. In exchange for peddling their wares, they offer a world of pink Cadillacs, white-columned mansions, tropical vacations, and--most precious of all--financial freedom. If, that is, you're willing to shell out for expensive products, recruit everyone you know to buy them, and make them recruit everyone they know to do the same--thus creating the 'multiple levels' of multilevel marketing, or MLM. Despite overwhelming evidence that multilevel marketing causes most of its participants to lose their money, and that many MLM companies are pyramid schemes, the industry's dubious origins, inextricably tied to well-known ideological figures like Ronald Reagan, have escaped public scrutiny. Behind the scenes of American life, MLM has slithered in the wake of every economic crisis of the last century, from the Depression to the pandemic, ensnaring laid-off workers, stay-at-home moms, teachers, nurses--anyone who has been left behind by inequality. In Little Bosses Everywhere, journalist Bridget Read tells the gripping story of multilevel marketing in full for the first time, winding from sunny post-war California, where a failed salesman started a vitamin business, through the suburbs of Michigan and North Carolina, where MLM bought its political protection, to the stadium-sized conventions where top sellers today preach to die-hard recruits. MLM has been endorsed by multiple American presidents, has its own Congressional caucus, and enriched powerful people, like the DeVos and Van Andel families, Warren Buffet, and Donald Trump. Along the way, Read delves into the heartbreaking stories of those enmeshed in the majority-female industry: a veteran in Florida searching for healing; a young mom in Texas struggling to feed her children; a waitress scraping by in Brooklyn. A wild trip down an endless rabbit hole of greed and exploitation, Little Bosses Everywhere exposes multilevel marketing as American capitalism's stealthiest PR campaign: a cunning right-wing political project that has shaped nearly everything about how we live"-- |c Provided by publisher. | ||
| 650 | 0 | |a Multilevel marketing |z United States |x History. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Success in business |z United States |x History. | |
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| 758 | |4 http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe/instanceOf |1 http://id.loc.gov/resources/works/24029396 | ||
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