inquire within: It just. Won’t. Die.

Back in July I wrote about a friend of mine getting wrapped up in the Quixtar phenomenon, which is a pretty euphemism for a complex, multilevel marketing scam that has lured thousands of unwitting hopefuls with promises of fiscal security and personal success — promises which prove unequivocally false for the vast majority taken in by them. As I said before, in much deeper detail:

Amway/Quixtar has made a very small group of people very rich, and their success stories are trumpeted as characteristic of the process. Far from it. The Federal Trade Commission requires Amway to label its products with the message that 54% of Amway recruits make nothing and the rest earn, on average, a whopping $65 a month. Dateline interviewers reported that the figure of individuals who earn no profits is nearer 90%, frighteningly enough.

My friend has since removed himself from Quixtar, his losses thankfully measured more in terms of time and effort than in substantial dollars, and given that he’s no longer involved, my interest in the topic has slackened considerably. Unfortunately, that does painfully little to deter individuals from googling Quixtar, finding my blog, and proceeding to post inane diatribes exhorting all manner of validation for such gross exploitation of the average shmuck. (Incidentally, under no circumstances does the Caps Lock reinforce your point; quite the contrary, it operates much like a thick-as-molasses Boston accent, and you certainly didn’t need that kind of help.)

My Quixtar research generates a not-inconsiderable amount of traffic on the blog, which is fine (though unfortunate for anyone who comes here not intending to read my otherwise banal entries) — but the discussion is tried and tired, and, accordingly, the comments have been closed. So go bother someone else (the folks at QuixtarBlog are only too happy to oblige).

Sheesh.