On: Buy payphones and retire

[asveikau]

I'd say that is a bit like splitting hairs, but the article does question the extent to which actual payphones and calls were actually involved..

[hinkley → asveikau]

Ponzi schemes are illegal. MLMs are legalized Ponzi schemes. The outcomes are similar but one has a veneer of legitimacy that makes it more dangerous for some people.

[asveikau → hinkley]

It's instructive not to argue the finer points without acknowledging what TFA says about the operators of the scheme breaking the law:

> In 2006, Charles Edwards was convicted of 83 counts of wire fraud and sentenced to thirteen years in prison.

Then another company:

> By 2009, more than a dozen people had been convicted of fraud in relation to Prometheus.

[popcalc → hinkley]

MLMs are pyramid schemes, not ponzis. For example bitcoin is a (somewhat decentralized, but centralized among major mining companies) pyramid scheme while Tether is a Ponzi.

Both pyramid schemes and Ponzis are illegal. MLMs are illegal in many places. In the US they were successfully able to lobby their way into carving out a legal niche in the 80s. They are also the reason supplement safety is so loosely regulated in the US.