Podcast Prescriptions: The Dream
We all want our country’s grand mythos to be true. The promise that you will be successful if you strive to work hard and be a good person. When people refer to, “The American Dream”, they are referring to this possibility of achieving your goals, but “dream” has another meaning. A dream is sometimes a possibility, but sometimes merely a sleep induced fantasy — an imaginary world that you concoct when your conscious mind is temporary disabled. When pursuing your dreams, it’s damn near impossible to determine if they make-believe or believable.
This etymological ambiguity is perfectly captured by Stitcher and Little Everywhere’s podcast, The Dream. Host Jane Marie and her team investigate whether the purported success of Multi Level Marketing companies are fact or fiction. They seem like pyramid schemes, but those are illegal, so they must not be pyramid schemes right? I mean, you probably have an aunt or 3 who’s trying to recruit you for Mary K to sell beauty products; an industry that’s as as legacied and publicly visible as MLMs couldn’t be illegal — right?
You might think the industry is a little fishy — and you’re right — but it’s more than that. The Dream’s diagnoses of the industry reveals that the whole thing is rotten to its core. Large companies, like Amway, have entrenched their scams into timeless institutions by cajoling politicians throughout the decades. Through political donations, they sustained political power throughout the 80’s and 90’s, even getting every president between Reagan and Bush to speak at their business conferences. Various federal lawsuits have been stymied by a Multi Level Marketing friendly Federal Trade Commission. Smaller companies have been correctly convicted of conducting pyramid schemes, but the largest competitors are business as usual.
Because of the failed lawsuits, these companies can convincingly present themselves as legitimate to potential new recruits. Purposefully making fun of typical, “We have an amazing business opportunity…” messaging, these companies distance themselves from established pyramid schemes. Instead they present multi level marketing as a practical challenge. You can buy a house while working part-time, but it’s not going to be handed to you. You have to find 5 people to recruit, and they’ll recruit another 5 people. Certain companies say that If you keep this steady pace for a year, you’ll be a millionaire. On its face 5 people a month doesn’t seem unreasonable, so when you are unable to meet the company’s expectations, the presumption of guilt is on you. But being successful in a MLM just isn’t possible. More than 99% of recruits lose money during their time in as a marketer, and the 5 people a month plan would only result in becoming a millionaire if you could recruit hundreds of millions of people a year.
Over the course of the first season’s 11 episodes, you come to a deeper and deeper understanding of which definition, The Dream, is referring to. Becoming successful via multi-level marketing is a fantasy, not a possibility. And when attending a MLM sale conference, producer MacKenzie Kassab found that most marketers fantasies were not luxurious. The conference attendees weren’t hoping to buy cadillacs, but their father’s gravestone, or to get their children the special education they need. Simple things that a normal job could help you acquire slowly. Simple things that the get rich quick allure of MLMs make into fantasies.
Which brings us all back to the American Dream. According to the mythos, if you don’t succeed, it’s your fault — just like MLMs. In both cases, success is pedaled as a possibility, but is merely a fantasy for all but a few people. The people who aren’t successful are blamed for their own poverty, but the system is rigged against them — especially for people of underrepresented genders and races. The Dream shows yet another repression of marginalized communities. An enduring systematic exploitation of poor people who are just trying to get a leg up on life. Given the abundant similarities between the American Dream, and the Pyramid scheme. It’s no wonder that MLM’s were popularized in The United States.
