Tea Party may appear in the ongoing MLM scandal

Shyam

As you know, currently in Europe, the world economic crisis is obliging national governments to face reality and reduce their spending in order to limit the size of their previous liabilities (which were acquired in more-optimistic times). Without the support of other nations, catastrophic over-spenders like Greece would have been effectively bankrupt. In order to maintain Britain's own international credit-rating, the new Conservative/Liberal administration under Prime Minister, David Cameron, has voluntarily announced some of the most dramatic spending cuts anywhere in the world. There have been few protests. However, in France, there have been widespread strikes protesting government plans to cut spending by raising the age of retirement. To date, these strikes have enjoyed the support of the majority of the French public. Indeed, the average French citizen considers it perfectly normal to live in a land where a compulsory, all-inclusive, government social/health insurance scheme will look after them (albeit modestly) from the cradle to the grave. However, French citizens are not living in a totalitarian State. They are perfectly free to make their own additional arrangements.

Difficult as it is for Europeans to believe, in the USA, a significant proportion of the population firmly believes any form of compulsory, all-inclusive, government social/health insurance scheme to be not only a dangerous step in the direction of 'communism,' but also to be uconstitutional. The campaign against President Obama's health-care reforms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act ) was particularly aggressive and there is still a campaign to have the recent legislation repealed. At the heart of this campaign is what is known as the 'Tea Party' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement . For obvious reasons, I have been expecting the 'Tea Party' to appear in the ongoing 'MLM' scandal.

'MLM' scams are fake 'Business Opportunities' which have targetted vulnerable individuals - manipulating their existing beliefs and instinctual desires, creating the illusion that they are exercising free will. Tellingly, if you look at recruitment material produced by 'MLM' racketeers, and by so-called 'Direct Selling Associations,' a lot of it has been designed to create fear, and/or to magnify existing fears. 'MLM' recruiters have been taught to emphasize how bleak, and/or uncertain, the future is for persons in traditional employment, and who are only relying on their meagre salaries/savings, and/or insurance plans, to take care of their current health needs and maintain them in old age. All too often, 'MLM' victims have not only been greedy people, but also those facing severe financial, and/or health, problems and who have bought into the Utopian 'MLM Business Opportunity' lie, because they needed to believe in the existence of an alternative, independent plan by which anyone can retire and continue to receive sufficient income to live in good health and luxury for the rest of their lives.

It, therefore, came as no surprise to me, when I learnt that one of the leading 'Tea Party' proselytizers has also been a 'Herbalife' under-boss http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/10/tea-party-mark-meckler-herbalife .

David Brear (copyright 2010)