Why AUSTRALIAN companies
may be your safest and best choice...
even in the USA!
  Hardly
a week goes by without several people writing to ask if I can
recommend a network marketing company for them that's more honest
and ethical than the one they're with, or have just left.
They're tired, disillusioned, cynical and sick at heart. They
still have a little bit of faith left in the concept of
network marketing, but they're beginning to fear that they'll
never find a company with real integrity... one that actually
"walks the talk" instead of just spouting noble sentiments
in order to suck them in and take their money.
They're tired of deceptive compensation plans that only reward
the heavy hitters and mega-recruiters — and the company.
They're sick to death of high group volume qualifications and high downline rank qualifications that create breakage that robs them of income and siphons unclaimable bonus income
from their efforts straight back to the company in secret,
windfall profits. Learn
more...
They've had it with abusive upline "leaders" who pressure
them into signing up for expensive standing orders for books and
tools every month, over-priced seminars and rallies to keep them
hyped-up, high personal product purchases every month, and who
use emotional blackmail and manipulation to keep them involved
and buying. Learn
more...
They're fed up of being labelled "losers", "quitters",
"negative" and worse whenever they question what they're
experiencing in reality, instead of the Dream they were
sold initially. Learn
more...
And they've finally had it with companies and upline organisations
that blatantly lie, cheat and steal from them — and the failure
of government regulators to take any action against the scams
and rip-offs until it's too late, and tens or even hundreds
of thousands of people like themselves have been fleeced. Again.
Why
does it happen? And why is so little done to fix it until it's
too late?
The answers are reasonably simple to identify. They may not be
easy to accept, however. Especially if you live in the USA. So
let me preface the following material like this...
I've
been dealing, almost daily, with Americans of all ages and
backgrounds, since 1954. Yep... more than half a century.
I even have children and grandchildren who live in the USA.
So I think you'll agree that, not only do I have a keen
interest in US affairs, but I know a little about the USA
and its culture by now. My American friends, here in Australia
and in the USA, certainly think so.
I admire and like much about America. But I'm no blinkered fanatic. There's a lot
that I don't admire or like, and I often feel about the USA as I do about my own
friends and even my grown-up children (and me)... no-one does it better, and no-one does
it worse!
But that's life and people everywhere. So let me say this:
the comments that follow are my personal observations and
experience, nothing more. There's no hidden agenda here.
I'm not out to prove any particular case or to score points.
I see a situation and I see cause and effect... and I can
see solutions that may be "outside the square".
So I ask you to accept my comments and opinions in the spirit in which they're offered...
an honest, sincere, frank and fond summation of a problem, its causes and possible
solutions. Whether you agree with me or not is entirely up to you. I'm happy to agree
to disagree. |
Since writing
this in 2001, the USA has suffered the trauma of September 11,
2001 and has invaded both Afghanistan and Iraq for the purpose
of overthrowing regimes that supported terrorism.
One of its stated aims in all this is to export democracy to the
Middle East.
One of the more frustrating aspects of US culture is its insularity,
especially in education and in the media, and the ignorance and
arrogance that this breeds. There's an assumption widely held
by Americans that democracy originated in the USA, and that its
particular brand of democracy and freedom is the only version.
Americans are constantly bewildered, when confronted by hostility
toward this assumption by the very people they see themselves
trying to help and enlighten, and can't undertand that hostility.
Democracy, as a formal political system, has been around for at
least 3,000 years. Yours is just one of the most recent
and extreme forms of democracy and, while it may be enlightened
and inspired in principle, in practice it leaves a lot
to be desired. So please... understand why, when your leaders
tell other nations that America is exporting democracy, that it
may not be a particularly welcome prospect, given the degree of
corruption and abuse of authority we see constantly in the US
system of government.
When people in the USA complain that regulators are slow to respond,
if at all, to abuses, it's basically down to your system of democracy.
When all responsible government and public offices are made accountable
through election to those offices, please understand that it's that very fact that makes your elected officials subject
to undue political patronage, pressure and interference.
Abraham Lincoln described democracy as "government of the people, by the people, for the people."
It's a wonderful concept. But in the 21st century, the reality
of democracy in America has become "government of the
people, by the lobbyists, for the vested interests."
When you consider the alarming reality that the big pharmaceutical
companies maintain a ratio of something like 28 professional lobbyists
for each member of Congress and the Senate, you begin to understand
why whatever the drug companies want, they tend to get. And why, despite FDA-approved, doctor-prescribed
pharmaceuticals made by those same drug companies being the fourth largest cause of unnatural death in the USA after
vehicles, alcohol and tobacco — waaaaay
ahead of illicit drug abuse — nothing is ever mentioned
about it in mainstream media and there are few (if any) government-funded
programs to eradicate it.
In Victoria, Australia, where I live, over the past three decades
we've cut the road toll by 80%, drink driving by a similar amount,
and tobacco use by almost half. I've actually been involved in
the development and implementation of some of those campaigns,
so I have some insights behind the scenes. The Victorian government
receives delegations from US federal and state governments and
agencies regularly, wanting to learn how they can implement those
same strategies in the USA. In every instance I know of, those
delegations returned home in dismay, astonished by the boldness
and ingenuity of our solutions, but defeated before they start because, as they put it so succinctly, "the vested interests
at home will never allow it."
And you thought I was exaggerating (or joking) about democracy in
the USA now being "government of the people,
by the lobbyists, for the vested interests"?
For more insight into this kind of corruption of the system in
America, read my article about the FDA — a rogue bureaucracy
that threatens not only the health and very lives of US
citizens, but their civil rights and freedoms of speech and information. Learn more...
How
does all this apply to network marketing?
I could quote example after example if I had the space and time.
Instead, check out some of the MLMTruth Coalition archives at http://MLMTruth.info. But let
me quote you one example, briefly, without actually naming names.
(I'm only establishing a point here, not scoring them.)
In the 1990s a high-profile, glamour nutrition company was established
by a person who, at the time, had at least FIVE court
orders in force against him in the USA, ordering him not to make any more
false or fraudulent scientific and medical claims for his products.
Yep... he'd done it five times in a row, yet had never
been hauled back into court to face a single charge of contempt
of court.
No sooner was the company up and running, with exponential growth
and a dazzling array of impressive scientific and medical claims
for its products by a high-profile medical researcher, leading
medical schools and national health agencies, than some of its
senior executives began dumping stock in order to cash in while
the going was good. Then it was revealed that the medical and
scientific claims made by the medical researcher had been falsified
and repudiated by those leading medical schools and national health
agencies.
Hmmm....
And guess what? Our much-prosecuted man at the top is still there.
Why? Because the State in which the company is based is notorious for not enforcing
court orders — even for fraud. Especially against local movers
and shakers who create employment, wealth (and pay taxes) in that
State!
Are you getting the picture here? When there are no consequences,
or the consequences are delayed, the perpetrators think there
are NO consequences. And besides... any fines are likely to be
a drop in the ocean compared to the millions they rip off from
their gullible victims.
Does that mean that all US-owned MLM companies are rogues, frauds,
swindles or scams?
Not at all. But it does mean that there's a disproportionate number
of "black hats" compared to the "white hats"
in network marketing.
And when those same scam artists are able to bounce back with
impunity, with the same scams and rip-offs, is it any wonder that
the ordinary citizen begins to suspect that ALL network marketing
companies are scams?
Two
recent examples
SkyBiz2000 was the world's biggest pyramid scam. But it
was the THIRD incarnation of the exact same scam, by the exact same people, in just three short years. The first, AdMax, was shut down by authorities in Oklahoma. Within
12 months, WebSiCom had opened for business before being
shut down again by Okalhoma authorities. Within THREE WEEKS, SkyBiz2000 launched from its offices in Bermuda (at least
these guys were slow learners — it took them three tries
before they were cunning enough to go offshore, where jurisdiction
was difficult to establish).
PRSI was another internet-based scam. And, like SkyBiz2000,
it was the THIRD version of the exact same scam by the same person.
The difference here was that it was based in Florida, where the
Attorney General was determined to keep his state free of such
scams. But it still managed to rip off $30 million for the owner
before he went to jail, $6 million of which is still unaccounted
for.
The MLMTruth Coalition was instrumental in the downfall
of all of these scams. (I'm the only Advisory Board member outside the USA and Canada.) But you can imagine our frustration when
they just kept bobbing up, again and again, while the authorities
wrung their hands and whined that they had no jurisdiction. The
Australian government finally had the bright idea — six months
after a suggested step-by-step strategy from me in my column in a national business
magazine — to prosecute a local promoter of SkyBiz2000
rather than waste time and resources trying to pursue the scam
owners in another country. People bailed out so fast that SkyBiz2000
was dead within a week, world-wide. The owners eventually
went to jail, but not before socking away untold millions in ill-gotten
riches.
How
does all this relate to Australian companies?
We're fortunate, in Australia, to have two things: a culture that
promotes a "fair go" and governments that aren't hog-tied
by vested interests to anything like the same extent as America.
(I'm not naive enough to think that there are no vested
interests here. But the Australian system isn't anywhere near
as open to abuse as the US system.)
So our regulatory agencies are independent of political patronage
and influence, as are our judges and law enforcement agencies.
Our consumer protection laws, competition laws, unconscionable
corporate conduct laws and corporate governance laws have real teeth, and the regulators can pursue Australian-owned companies
for illegal activities under Australian law anywhere in the world.
So if an Australian company tries to rip off US consumers, while
keeping its nose clean at home, it could still face harsh penalties
in Australia for its US misbehaviour. Even James Hardie,
the huge Australian-owned, global building materials manufacturer,
couldn't escape justice, the media spotlight, public odium and
plummeting share prices when it tried to relocate to the Netherlands
to escape liability for claims by workers in its asbestos mines
and manufacturing plants over more than 40 years. The CEO and
CFO at the time are facing long jail terms for their part in engineering
the attempted flight to Europe. And this was after Enron,
whose master-minds are still playing legal games in the courts.
Even something as mundane as spamming has been effectively wiped
out in Australia. Sure, we all receive it, mostly from US-based
spammers operating with impunity in the face of the Can-Spam Act
(a sick joke, its original intent foiled, yet again, by powerful
vested interests!), but there are effectively no Australian-based
spammers since passage of the anti-spam laws, which impose fines
of $1.1 MILLION per message per day on anyone convicted
of sending spam to or from Australia. (The first conviction
involved a fine of $4.5 million and put the spammer out of business
permanently. Can you imagine how quickly the others shut their
doors?)
Action against rogue Australian companies and their managers is
swift and relentless. No mercy is shown to those proven to be
blatant crooks, and they are pursued around the world — in
some cases until they die, literally!
 Can you imagine
belonging to a solid, Australian-owned network marketing company
with a 'fair-go' culture and tough regulatory oversight like that? Can you
imagine the appeal of such a clean, transparent, fair-dinkum operation
to jaded, disillusioned, badly-burned American network marketers?
Can you see why, in a very real sense, it's possible that Australian-owned
companies, subject to Australian consumer and corporate laws,
even in America, could become the industry leaders?
It's no pipe dream. It's already under way, right now. It's
the best kept secret in network marketing, but it won't stay that
way for long. Not just one Australian company, either... several
are now making inroads into the US market... and the Americans
involved are absolutely loving them! No hype, no rah-rah, no emotional
blackmail, no deception, no rip-offs... just what they've always
dreamed of in network marketing companies.
Yes, I can tell you the names of the companies, but you'll need
to contact me privately for details. (It's not appropriate to
discuss them here.)
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