I have a new job!!! (Yes, Attention Whoring)

[Gustaf]

As far as I'm concerned, the real clincher here is they finding you. That doesn't happen. A company doesn't randomly find some dude in another country with no previous experience in the particular field and give them a dream-job.

People do get dream jobs they're not qualified for (I know of cases similar to this one) but in those cases it always happens EITHER from personal contacts OR through the person himself seeking out the company.

If the business is legitimate, this way of conducting business is sufficiently unprofessional that they're unlikely to survive.

At the very, very least you should take some pre-caution in emptying the account you give them any kind of information on. Also, if they're good at this they might give you a little bit of money early on to instill confidence. If you're smart, don't get fooled by that.

[Gustaf]

Moral of the story: Listen to opebo.

How is that the moral of the story? I'd say it is rather "listen to anyone who posted in this thread".

I don't think anyone posted anything other than warnings.

[Gustaf]

Moral of the story: Listen to opebo.

How is that the moral of the story? I'd say it is rather "listen to anyone who posted in this thread".

I don't think anyone posted anything other than warnings.

True but I was the most vociferous and extreme, because I am the most pessimistic person on the forum.  The moral is:  he who is most pessimistic is oracle.

You just wanted another opportunity to engage in your usual ravings on how horrible it is to be poor, living in America today and how good it is to have a public sector job. You took a pretty limited interest in the actual case, unlike the people who actually put in research or valid points on the specifics of this situation.

It doesn't really matter much either way, but calling yourself an oracle for predicting what everyone else predicted seems a little over the top to me.

[Gustaf]

You just wanted another opportunity to engage in your usual ravings on how horrible it is to be poor, living in America today and how good it is to have a public sector job.

Yes of course!  And all of those things are absolutely true, Gustaf.

You took a pretty limited interest in the actual case, unlike the people who actually put in research or valid points on the specifics of this situation.

Only an imbecile would need to research this to know it was what it was, Gustaf.   (not dissimilar from the economics thread).

That's not the point...the point was that this actually convinced BushOK to not go through with it. That is, those people actually did some good for him instead of using this as an excuse to recycle their tired tirades about politics.

[Gustaf]

The median wage in the US is apparently about $26 000. That would be $14-15 per hour based on an average work year of 1777 hours (which is what wikipedia tells me).

So, Opebo is living in fantasyland as usual.

[Gustaf]

This thread is getting depressing.

[Gustaf]

These kinds of companies are often legitimate in the sense that they're not illegal. They do however screw people over quite a bit, especially customers but also a lot of employees.

It's an ok gamble to work for this type of company when you're doing what Nym was doing - earning college money over the summer. It's not something to found a marriage upon.

[Gustaf]

The median wage in the US is apparently about $26 000. That would be $14-15 per hour based on an average work year of 1777 hours (which is what wikipedia tells me). 

Yes, the median, Gustaf - which obviously means that half the population is living on less than that, and it is quite likely that millions upon millions are in fact living on $7-8/hour.  So nothing about your post refuted any of my remarks, and we're still left with the question - how do these millions survive on $7-8/hour?

This thread is getting depressing.

The life of most people is depressing Gustaf - life is misery, at least for the vast majority.  Even for those who are privileged, such as yourself, pain and suffering are the norm near the end of life.  Wake up and smell the stench of death, Gustaf - the world sucks.

I can see how you would get that idea from having no friends beyond the people you buy and no meaning to your life, but most people, including myself, are actually quite happy (at least in the Western world). The most recent figure from the US said about 84% were happy with their personal lives.

You constantly project your own misery onto the rest of the world - instead of facing up to the fact that you ed up your own life you try to feel better by making it seem as if everyone else's life is bad. It strikes me as a petty and silly thing to engage in.

And as regards minimum wages...oh dear. There you did it again. What is with you and the compulsive lying? You said that "the rest of the country" survived on 7-8 dollars, implying everyone except BushOK and then you clarified by saying that you didn't understand how 60% of the country survived, suggesting that you thought 60% lived on minimum wage. The actual figure is more like 1% (well, 2-3 if you divide by number of workers which seems more appropriate). It's 3.5 million people. Of course, half of them are 25 or younger so they may not be dependent on their wage anyway.

It's still a lot of people who do not have very much money, but I don't think it is stunning that the bottom percent of wage earners in the US are poor. You were, as usual, making things up to make it seem like everyone is poor but it was actually incorrect.

[Gustaf]

Yeah, the makeup companies are probably the only legitimate version of this.  Mainly because they actually have a product to sell.  I imagine these schemes would work with Apple and Dell brand electronics, farm fresh wholesale produce, and other products that people... you know... actually buy.

There's an anti-Mary Kay Cosmetics website out there full of complaints about that company's recent policies.

There are certainly legitimate ones though, like Oriflame. Doesn't Tupperware work more or less this way too?

As a funny aside, I've been studying trust recently and apparently people who are less trusting are often easier to fool, for various reasons. These kind of companies are good examples of that - people get in on them to make money off of suckers stupid enough to buy the worthless products they're selling. But they don't realize they're getting fooled by the people above them.

[Gustaf]

There are certainly legitimate ones though, like Oriflame. Doesn't Tupperware work more or less this way too?

I think these organizations have been conceived with the original sin that they will eventually max out their market, and from that point on individuals within the hierarchy are going to abuse their positions and their underlings to keep making the good money and keep ahead of their competitors. There's a Malthusian aspect that comes from expanding geometrically. It's equivalent to how polygamous communities eventually lead to child abuse, with boys expelled and girls married off too young, because men need to compete for wives.

Pyramid schemes have that inherent quality I suppose. I was thinking more of personal selling where you buy the product.