Since the dawn of societal authority and power, there have always been people who distrust in the totalitarian-esque nature of their control. This distrust has transcended numerous generations and cultures, gaining more traction in recent centuries. A common conception is that for one to elevate oneself to such positions it must come at the sacrifice of ethics. This is one explanation of why corporations, of late, have become synonymous with unethical behaviour. However, many of the claims against corporations and their executives are unsubstantiated and unwarranted, there are many that are. One such case is that of multi-level marketing companies, such as Herbalife and Mary Kay. Multi-level marketing companies brought in roughly $36 billion in retail sales in 2015. How it works is “distributers have two main ways to make money: sell the product itself… and earn money on those sales and recruit people into the company and make money off of their sales” (Last Week Tonight, Oliver). Principally and geometrically speaking multi-level marketing companies are a “pyramid scheme”. What fascinates me is how within a modern economy such a lucrative illegal business can be allowed to exist without repercussions. A fundamental issue with “pyramid schemes”, beyond the issue of their legality, is that only the people at the top make money. How can the CEO of Herbalife cash a $3 million bonus cheque while many of his distributers live in poverty? Has society become desensitized or indifferent to the injustices being committed by major corporations? As the ‘Statesmen of Silicon Valley’ and cofounder of Intel Robert Noyce, aptly put: “If ethics are poor at the top, that behaviour is copied down through the organization”. One thing is for certain: if these multi-marketing companies are allowed to function without any repercussions then the unethical business mindset and societal conception will continue to prevail.
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Article: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-540-70818-6.pdf
Video: https://youtu.be/s6MwGeOm8iI (for further sources used in video refer to video and video description)