Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America

A 'gripping' (The Washington Post) work of history and reportage that unveils the stranger-than-fiction world of multilevel marketing: a massive money-making scam and radical political conspiracy that has remade American society. 'Reads like a thriller . . . masterfully illuminates the tricks and sleights of hand that in multilevel marketing are simply the rules of doing business.'--The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) Companies like Amway, Mary Kay, and Herbalife advertise the world's greatest opportunity: the chance to be your own boss via an enigmatic business model called multilevel marketing, or MLM. They offer a world of pink Cadillacs, white-columned mansions, tropical vacations, and--most precious of all--financial freedom. If, that is, you're willing to shell out for expensive products and recruit everyone you know to buy them, and if they recruit everyone they know, too, thus creating the 'multiple levels' of MLM. Overwhelming evidence suggests that most people