What is MLM?
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Cult-like get rich quick pyramidal/Ponzi scheme, at the expense of your money and relationships.
Marxism–Leninism–Maoism (MLM) is a political philosophy that synthesizes and builds upon Marxism–Leninism and Maoism. Its proponents refer to Marxism–Leninism–Maoism as Maoism and Maoism as Mao Zedong Thought (MZT) or Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought.
Men Loving Men is one definition. Another way to describe homosexual male relations, without necessarily saying gay, as there are some men who really don’t like that word, even if other people would consider it accurate.
But I think you might be meaning Multi-Level Marketing. Here’s an example.
Alice: “Want to make tons of money? Pay me $500 and you get to join ExampleCo and sell ExampleCo merchandise!”
Betty: “That sounds good. How do you make money doing this?”
Alice: “You can make some money by selling ExampleCo merchandise, but the real money is in doing what I just did, getting people to pay me to join ExampleCo. I get a bonus for everyone I recruit!”
Betty: “Okay, but you’ve already asked all my friends. It will be really hard for me to find enough new people to join ExampleCo for me to make a lot of money that way!”
Alice: “Not my problem. I got here at the beginning, so I already made my money and don’t care if you don’t. But still, you can sell the products. They aren’t awful.”
Betty: “I guess, but I am still competing with everyone else selling them right?”
Alice: “Sure, but if you work really really hard, you’ll do fine. Now go out there and sell Examples!”
It’s basically a legal form of a pyramid scheme, where you work hard to get people to join an organization and pay you for the privilege of joining, but they can also make money by selling a product, even if the main focus of the organization is to recruit new people instead.
Multi-Level Marketing is a business model where the primary method of making money is by getting other people to buy into the business.
Say I make vacuum cleaners. I found a business called Sucky Corp. But, I don’t have the money to produce units on a large scale, or to market my brand to a wide audience. So, I go door to door in my local neighborhood, selling my sucky vacuums. I find two people who are really interested in the company, and I make them each an offer. Instead of just buying vacuums from me, they can pay me a large sum for a bulk inventory of vacuums, which they can then sell door to door just like I have. And, if they want, they can also offer this deal to anyone else they want to. If they get anyone to pay me the entry price for bulk vacuums, I’ll give a small cash bonus to the person that got them to sign up.
So, the company has multiple levels of employee, all of whom are doing the marketing for the brand. The person at the top is collecting the buy in for everyone who joins, and the people in the middle are collecting a cash bonus for every new addition to the fold.
Why this is commonly a scam is that adding new people is more profitable for all involved than actually selling the product. In many cases, the products are cheaply made and never expected to really sell. Instead, people buy into the company, then find that the only way they can make their money back is by convincing other idiots to also buy in. Eventually the company will expand to the point where the bottom rungs can’t find anyone else to sell their pitch to. The people who got in early laugh their way to the bank, the people at the bottom are victims of a con, and everyone ends up with boxes of sucky vacuums taking up space in their garages.
Men loving men – Gay and bisexual dudes
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism – A Communist sub-ideology, consisting of Mao’s Zedong’s ideological innovations on the basic ideology of Marxism-Leninism that Stalin promoted. Puts more emphasis on the rural peasantry than traditional Marxism which focuses entirely on the industrial proletariat.
Multi-level-marketing – A type of pyramid scheme that involves salesmen both selling a product as well as trying to recruit more salesmen by selling *them* the product and telling them they can make money by selling the product to yet another person. It’s sold as a legitimate “business” opportunity, but in reality it’s a scam. There’s barely any consumers buying these products to actually use them. It’s mostly just salesmen selling the products down the line to other salesmen. The vast majority of these people make no profit, indeed they lose almost all of their initial “investment”.
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