Today I had a thirty minute conversation with someone I became friendly with several years ago through a public speaking group. He called to interest me in a multi-level marketing product he has recently gotten involved in, which sells a bundled package of services ‘to save you money’ for a monthly fee.
Now, I’ll be upfront and say I don’t generally like MLM. I don’t like when every friend and aquaintance becomes targeted as a possible income stream. But because I wanted to be fair, I listened to all he had to say. I looked at the website he recommended. And finally he wanted to know what I thought. So I told him.
I told him that it seemed to me that it was all based on convincing people they would save money by spending money on services they would probably never need. I pointed out that most of the services that were being bundled couldn’t save people money unless they increased their spending. I said that I felt it wouldn’t be fair to give people the message that they need to look to the experts (ie, the companies offering these services) to take care of them when what they needed was to take responsibility for themselves as much as they could.
He insisted that people would save money. So I went through several of the services that he specifically mentioned and said how I thought they could be better dealt with for much less money. Insurance for identity theft – eliminate or reduce credit card usage, monitor your bank and credit card statement regularly, learn about strategies to protect your identity. Discounts for dental services – focus on preventative dental care to minimize need for expensive dental work, go to a dental college when services are needed. Discounts for eye exams and glasses – go to an online website like zennioptical for inexpensive glasses. Debt consolidation – go to the library, get a book on getting out of debt, and make a plan.
He said very few people are going to do that, that people’s time is worth more money than what they’d be spending (I actually have a post that is half written on exactly that argument, waiting for me to find time to finish it). Well, he may be right that people aren’t going to rush out and start reading books and educating themselves, though I think that’s a skeptical and limited view of human nature. But I told him that it’s learning to do exactly that which would help people improve their lives financially, and I’d rather spend my time empowering people and dealing with the root of the issue than tell them that spending on something is the answer.
Then he told me I’d be helping people to have a better life, since they would make money on every referral they signed up, and asked why I think making money is bad (which I never said but think must be one of the lines they teach you to use on people when the conversation isn’t going well for you). I responded that I don’t have a problem with making money, if it’s something you believe in and you’re offering a legitimate service, but that I don’t believe in turning every single activity into an income stream (which is why my blog doesn’t have any ads or monetizing elements built into it, despite repeated suggestions by others to add them). He said if I could make money on it, what’s wrong with that? I said that we all do things for money, and there are things we do for pleasure, and for me, helping people save money is something I do for pleasure. And I pointed out that he himself has this experience of not charging for every valuable service he offered, as he didn’t charge his daughter every time he watched his granddaughter!
I didn’t mean to be a tough customer, but participating in something like this doesn’t align with my values. He didn’t really agree with me, which is okay, so we agreed to disagree, and left it at that!
Avivah
