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False Profits, SeekingFinancial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and PyramidSchemes

by Robert L. FitzPatrick and Joyce K. Reynolds

• 235-page trade paper back with a full-color cover.
• Price: $12.95
• Full color cover
• Index and illustrations included
• ISBN 0-9648795-1-4
• Available direct from the publisher, Herald Press at 1800 Camden Rd. Suite 107 #101, Charlotte, NC 28203. (Please Note that Herald Press in Charlotte, NC is not affiliated with the Mennonite Publishing House.)

False Profits is an in-depth examinationof the multi-level marketing industry and related illegal pyramid schemeswhich have grown rapidly in the US and abroad in the last 15 years. Theexamination looks at the MLM field from the perspective of its financial,social, personal and spiritual effects on those enrolled and solicited.

A centerpiece of the book is a dramatic account of the illegal pyramidscheme, called the "Airplane Game", as it unfolded in South Floridaand other parts of the United States in the late 1980s. This account isprovided as part of the exploration of the underlying motives, values andneeds that draw people into these programs and into MLM.

False Profits:

• traces the philosophical and promotional assertions of the MLM industry to fundamental American values and beliefs and describes how they are used and misused in MLM solicitation campaigns.
• explains the structural, legal, promotional, and philosophical similarities and distinctions of the multi-level marketing industry and illegal pyramid schemes.
• examines the MLM distribution system in light of the principles of traditional distribution channels, the requirements of supply and demand, market saturation, good faith manufacturer/distribution relations, and the role of honest and full disclosure of market conditions and expectations.
• analyzes the assertions in MLM recruitment and its sales of motivation materials regarding what constitutes success in life, the meaning of prosperity, the power of creative visualization and belief, the value of alternative work or occupations, and the role of MLM in the overall economy.
• illustrates how the MLM system of enrollment changes personal, family and professional relationships.
• provides data on the size of the MLM industry, growth rates, number of people involved, success rates of distributors and incomes of distributors
• critiques the most popular promotional literature of the MLM industry against real life experience of millions of participants.

The final section of False Profitsoffers alternative approaches to work, vocation, and personal integrityin work and business. This side of the subject is considered because ofMLM's pervasive messages and predictions about its role in the distributionfield and its self-promotions as the preferred or only sustainable way toearn a living in the current and future economy.