Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Uplines Exploit Downlines?

Some big companies and some private entrepreneurs have been accused of being "sweat shop owners". This is when they exploit their workers. Often in foreign countries, big companies may hire workers for a very small wage and poor working conditions. For example, a foreign operation may have a warehouse full of women and children working all day under poor conditions for a few bucks a day. The owners of these operations can rake in the dough as they save a ton of money in labor costs.

Some uplines operate just like sweat shop owners, but in many cases, they are worse then sweat shop owners because even exploited workers earn something, even if it's not a lot. At the end of the month, they have a net gain, even if it might be small. In the case of many Amway IBOs, they spend money on Amway products, and uplines take the lion's share of the rebate/bonus that is generated by those sales, and then in turn, these same uplines try to get many of their downline to also become customers of their system of cds, books, voicemail and seminars or functions. In many, probably most cases, uplines will make just as much if not more income from the system, than from Amway. And for the downlines who may earn some bonus, upline will advise them to reinvest that bonus and more back into buying more system materials.

These same upline will also teach firece loyalty to the system. Never miss a function. Make sacrifices to buy more books or cds, and make sure you are always looking for people to sponsor to add to the system. Joining the system almost guarantees that you will suffer a net loss in the Amway business. It is why I continue to write about what IBOs and prospects should look for when they are being recruited or indoctrinated into these systems. It is why there are so many defenders of Amway, most of whom are losing money, but think they are still successful because it is what upline teaches. I have heard many times about the "proven system", but all the system has proven is that it can nearly guarantee that downline IBOs will lose monet, almost exclusively due to the system expenses.

I know most IBOs won't believe this, but I will say it anyway. IBOs on the system are probably worse off than sweat shop employees because they are paying their upline to do their work. At least sweat shop employees get a salary. Upline will teach you that it is an honor to drive them around, or to do tasks for them. Many platinums works as free doormen and ushers at meetings and functions. Upline benefits by maximizing profits from functions. It is pure downline exploitation and I hope eventually that more and more IBOs will recognize this. It's all cleverly planned to make it seem as if a downline IBO benefits by "associating" with upline. But you are not associating, you are simply doing unpaid labor. Stop and think for a minute, for all your time and expense, what tangible gain did your business realize?

Many uplines exploit their downline and at the same time, teach their downline that this is beneficial to them. Don't believe it!

2 comments:

Ex Eagle said...

> Upline will teach you that it is an honor to drive them around, or to do tasks for them.

So true, joecool! I remember one of my cross lines (another fake silver) used to live in Baltimore, MD. My upline diamond lived in New Jersey and he once did a meeting in Washington D.C. So my cross line drove with his wife from Baltimore to New Jersey, picked up my upline diamond, drove him to the meeting in D.C. The meeting ended around 2 AM after all the night owls. My cross line then drove my upline diamond from DC to NJ and then drove back all the way to his home the next day morning at 7 AM...

Total # of miles driven from 3 PM to 7 AM the following day = 720.

If this guy drove a good-mileage car he would have gotten 30 miles/gallon and spent about $3/gallon * 720/30 = $72 just on gas!

Anonymous said...

yikes