tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post4130036296705415383..comments2024-03-15T20:52:26.967-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: The Great California Pyramid Scheme Mania of May 1980Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-32941549325885099812017-11-08T10:19:54.930-08:002017-11-08T10:19:54.930-08:00Was just reading news about Bitcoin and it reminde...Was just reading news about Bitcoin and it reminded me of So Cal 1980 which in turn landed me here. I could hardly tear myself away from Dave Del Dotto infomercials on how to make millions investing in real estate to pay attention to the pyramid schemes. Honestly, when it come to real estate investing I think Tom Vu was more educational due to the bikini girls and his rented yachts!Bernie Evidancehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14052136938734337951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43405361745288071122015-08-07T22:52:20.353-07:002015-08-07T22:52:20.353-07:00I was in So. Cal. during the pyramid time frame an...I was in So. Cal. during the pyramid time frame and saw that it fizzled out when there were no new people to invest in it. It was on all the news channels and was quite a spectacle.<br />I can identify with previous posts on MLM because I felt the same way.<br />Since it is apparently a legal form of business has anyone spent any time at all on developing a MLM business plan that would actually be a benefit to people?<br />I think the majority of people think that the last people to join a MLM would be left holding the bag, so to speak.<br />What if the last people to join would be in profit?<br />How would that be possible you might ask?<br />With the schedule C 1040 Tax Form claiming home based business write offs.<br />How much would it cost to participate? $60 or less per month.<br />How much could you make per month residual? $29,523 with a full Matrix.<br />Compensation plan would be a 3 X 9 Forced Matrix with spillover and compression to infinity.<br />Don't know what that is? Well, I guess you might have to spend a little time to figure it out for yourself. That is if you want to make some money in MLM.<br />It seems that if even MLM was a good thing it would still be outside most peoples comfort zone to even consider stepping outside group think.<br />If I am right, who do you want to here it from me or your friends?<br />Talk with whoever who does your taxes and get their advice on the subject. <br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09853652774593173457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-65209185428764327302012-10-17T00:55:40.997-07:002012-10-17T00:55:40.997-07:00Mmk, I was there and I actually had money working ...Mmk, I was there and I actually had money working in the oil industry. No one mentioned that this was also in the time of Tut mania. And yeah, it was southern california. Gut what really made pyramid mania work was good ole fashioned greed...get something for nothing greed. First I remember hearing of "pyramid parties" and I recall my buddy's wife gushing about how great it was going to be when they got to the top of the pyramid. Haha! <br /> It never added up from the start for me. But when some of the higher ups at work invited me and the other guys to a party and they whipped out a pyramid and lo and behold, their names were in all the top spots. So stupid! Like we were idiots. Some guys did it just trying to curry favor. <br /> Oh yeah. The other thing that kept those things going was the desperation of the fools who bought in. The only way they could get their money back was to hustle their family and friends. Hmmm,sounds kind of like amway or nu skin, doesn't it. <br /> Glad I never fell for that crap. Hey, here's another thing for you to write on that was happening at about the same time. Tax revolt. There was a group going around telling people that their money was not legal according to some obscure old definitions of money that they claimed were still on the books. They got another buddy of mine to claim 99 exemptions on his w4. The leader of that group was a guy named Irwin A. Schiff or Schriff, something like that. Poor guy wound up in big trouble and having his wages garnished for a long time. I was close to falling for that one, but I had the sense to call a tax accountant. Cool guy! Talked some sense into my twenty year old dumb head. Haha! <br /> Thanks for the memories, guy! Write on!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-53953974990834904172010-11-19T02:03:52.263-08:002010-11-19T02:03:52.263-08:00I was cleaning out an old chest belonging to my hu...I was cleaning out an old chest belonging to my husband, and I found a golden yellow T-shirt with a "Pyramid Power" emblem on the back, and a smaller triangle with "We're in the Money" and "$16,000" on the front. Is this a collector's item?Linda.G.Henkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13256641151616250634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-73480217631057460302009-03-09T12:52:00.000-07:002009-03-09T12:52:00.000-07:00"...pyramid imagery was central to the experience,..."...pyramid imagery was central to the experience, which made this Pyramid Power pyramid scheme hard to debunk. It was already pre-debunked."<BR/><BR/>Sort of like how you can't kill zombies, because they're already dead.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-48164648444426400452009-03-07T09:22:00.000-08:002009-03-07T09:22:00.000-08:00"How do you think those Egyptian pharaohs got so r...<I>"How do you think those Egyptian pharaohs got so rich that they could afford those giant pyramids? Through tapping the secret energy of Pyramid Power!"</I><BR/><BR/>Sounds like History Channel material.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-16244737160591411942009-03-07T08:09:00.001-08:002009-03-07T08:09:00.001-08:00Michael Farris saidAnd more importantly, how can h...Michael Farris said<BR/><BR/><I>And more importantly, how can he blame it on black people or latinos?</I><BR/><BR/>I'm not aware that Steve ever blamed anything on black people or latinos.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-69718404205306531952009-03-07T08:09:00.000-08:002009-03-07T08:09:00.000-08:00Michael Farris saidAnd more importantly, how can h...Michael Farris said<BR/><BR/><I>And more importantly, how can he blame it on black people or latinos?</I><BR/><BR/>I'm not aware that Steve ever blamed anything on black people or latinos.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-84510030711547975702009-03-06T23:25:00.000-08:002009-03-06T23:25:00.000-08:00"Snake-eyed Greta and her hubby are also scientolo..."Snake-eyed Greta and her hubby are also scientologists. In for a penny, in for a pound."<BR/><BR/>This woman is Fox's weakest link, even worse than Hannity and O'Reilly, who at least have a smidgen of intellect and charm. I guess she is supposed to appeal to dowdy housewives who identify with her, otherwise I don't know why she is there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52957226007675493412009-03-06T20:19:00.000-08:002009-03-06T20:19:00.000-08:00"Gene Berman said...I read not long ago that Greta..."Gene Berman said...<BR/><BR/>I read not long ago that Greta van Susteren and her husband had been taken by some scam-scheme and then tried to run the same on others to get their money (about $700K) back."<BR/><BR/>Snake-eyed Greta and her hubby are also scientologists. In for a penny, in for a pound.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-56872619405723829412009-03-06T19:52:00.000-08:002009-03-06T19:52:00.000-08:00Do any of you remember the movie Semi-Tough.... T...<I>Do any of you remember the movie Semi-Tough.... The next scene is in the bedroom with a very disapointed Burt Reynolds pulling a pyramid out from under the bed.</I><BR/><BR/>Not from under the bed - from under the bed<I>ding</I>, i.e., under the covers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43367315270498992162009-03-06T19:40:00.000-08:002009-03-06T19:40:00.000-08:00Within a week it completely fizzled out when every...<I>Within a week it completely fizzled out when everyone realized there was no reason to pay some one else to be the pilot and co-pilot when you could create a plane from scratch and start as the pilot.</I><BR/><BR/>That's what I could never understand, even as a little kid -- why would anyone pay for the "right" to put his name on the second level of the pyramid (or wherever), when he could simply put his name in the same place without paying anything?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-65748052897822887152009-03-06T15:13:00.000-08:002009-03-06T15:13:00.000-08:00Everything old is new againhttp://www.businessinsi...Everything old is new again<BR/><BR/>http://www.businessinsider.com/big-on-youtube-sketchy-looking-pyramid-schemers-2009-3Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-20558327236610106352009-03-06T14:47:00.000-08:002009-03-06T14:47:00.000-08:00Speaking of cults, I read some web stuff about thi...Speaking of cults, I read some web stuff about this David Allen, Getting Things Done guy, and it made sense so I bought his book. Then I noticed some people into GTD were *really* into GTD and did a websearch GTD cult -- in sort of a jocular way, meaning the GTD proponents and enthusiasts were cult-like. Turns out that David Allen is pretty New Age-y , and he lives in ... Ojai. (The slim connection to this thread). The more I read about him, the more perfectly he fit a certain old school California 'nuts and flakes' profile (Berkeley drop-out, drugs, EST or something) . I long for that old California -- whatever its faults it was definitely preferable to what we have now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-88727206418804153852009-03-06T13:51:00.000-08:002009-03-06T13:51:00.000-08:00These things are older than we are, folks. I don't...These things are older than we are, folks. I don't know how far back Amway goes but I can remember it at least to the mid-'40s (when it was called Nutralite and sold with the same multi-level scheme. Sometime before, the Justice dept, had gotten a "Consent Decree" against them. The sharpies had their salespeople bragging about the consent decree, explaining it to customers as the Justice's consent to their legitimacy and business practices!<BR/><BR/>I read not long ago that Greta van Susteren and her husband had been taken by some scam-scheme and then tried to run the same on others to get their money (about $700K) back.<BR/><BR/>I don't know (or remember) if they were charged with anything but think they had to pay back a bunch.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-81585097468564682452009-03-06T12:22:00.000-08:002009-03-06T12:22:00.000-08:00That's a really rotten thing to say about Robert H...That's a really rotten thing to say about Robert Heinlein, who was a thoughtful man who did the intellectual work to actually develop some political opinions, and allow them to be changed by his experiences with reality over time. <BR/><BR/>Make up for it by writing something about his ambiguous relationship with white nationalism and eugenics. If he hadn't had the stroke and had survived to see the hbd research, what would he be writing today?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-49792391785218802302009-03-06T10:57:00.000-08:002009-03-06T10:57:00.000-08:00Do any of you remember the movie Semi-Tough with B...Do any of you remember the movie Semi-Tough with Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson released in the late 1970's. They spoof a lot of the weird California cults from that era. There was a hilarious scene where one football player tells the Burt Reynolds character about pyramid power and how wonderful it make sex. The next scene is in the bedroom with a very disapointed Burt Reynolds pulling a pyramid out from under the bed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-45670305046625920352009-03-06T08:15:00.000-08:002009-03-06T08:15:00.000-08:00From California the trend spread eastward, in the ...From California the trend spread eastward, in the countless barely-legal pyramid marketing schemes: Amway, vitamins, aloe vera, and that term life/securities scheme whose name escapes me that collapsed in a zillion lawsuits.<BR/><BR/>Inexplicably, these s****y schemes continue. Two years ago, somebody roped me into some stupid free seminar on an internet-based one. Several years before that, a colleague cold-called me to try and join something similar. For a certain mentality, the concept of market saturation just never sinks in.<BR/><BR/>--Senor DougAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-75403148410924946962009-03-06T08:12:00.000-08:002009-03-06T08:12:00.000-08:00Terrific post, Steve! You have a real gift for na...Terrific post, Steve! You have a real gift for narrative. I vote for more like this.Aciliushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07785768453427754723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43581540749187978112009-03-06T07:27:00.000-08:002009-03-06T07:27:00.000-08:00Stati_Momak, my point is that the state didn't pro...Stati_Momak, my point is that the state didn't protest the first trickle of illegals coming across the border because the state was already swimming in idiocy. I saw an episode of The Rockford Files that showed a long term illegal in a glowing manner. <BR/><BR/>The whole state of California has lost its mind and is dragging the rest of us with it. Whether it is pyramid power, or immigration-driven real-estate-pyramid-power the whole state is a malignant cancer on the American body politic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-88074904484886300182009-03-06T03:20:00.000-08:002009-03-06T03:20:00.000-08:00In Evelyn Waugh's 1932 novel "Black Mischief," the...In Evelyn Waugh's 1932 novel "Black Mischief," the British ambassador to Azania is captivated by a chain letter he receives about the metaphysical implications of the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.<BR/><BR/>So, Pyramid Power has been around a long time.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-16696149118282576702009-03-06T03:14:00.000-08:002009-03-06T03:14:00.000-08:00Someday I'll have to write about Robert Heinlein a...Someday I'll have to write about Robert Heinlein as the characteristic Californian, even though he grew up in Missouri and spent his 1950s prime in Colorado. But he lived in California in the 1930s-40s (a lot in Raymond Chandler's LA) and again in the 1970s-1980s (Santa Cruz). <BR/><BR/>What made Heinlein a more interesting writer than, say, Ayn Rand was that he didn't actually have strong political opinions of his own, even though he thought he did. He just absorbed his three wives' various dogmas and gave them vivid (if contradictory) expression.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-23687758499984061832009-03-06T03:06:00.000-08:002009-03-06T03:06:00.000-08:00There was a big, transparent pyramid scheme in Bri...There was a big, transparent pyramid scheme in Britain about 15 years ago. People pointed out the folly, but were told that it's different this time because membership is restricted to women.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-17344188815875734912009-03-06T02:32:00.000-08:002009-03-06T02:32:00.000-08:00The basic idea sounds similar to old-fashioned Cha...The basic idea sounds similar to old-fashioned Chain Letters in the UK. You got a letter with a list of names and addresses that asked you to send a small sum of money to the name at the top, remove that name, add your name at the bottom and copy the letter to a specified number of people. The number of people at each level increased geometrically, so the claim that you would eventually recieve a very large reward was plausible to those unaware that the population was finite. When this was made illegal they switched to other stuff than money - but who wants to get a million postcards? <BR/>Incidentally, do you think the pyramid on the dollar bill predisposes Americans to believe in pyramid schemes?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-39161638186512535582009-03-06T02:20:00.000-08:002009-03-06T02:20:00.000-08:00True, California had not been inundated with Mexic...True, California had not been inundated with Mexicans and others then, this was white folks being crazy. The difference is it involved, what, tens of thousands of folks at the most, and didn't cost a public dim. No emergency rooms closed because of pyramid power, California school were still among the best in the naiton, etc etc. <BR/><BR/>The immigration driven property pyramid is infinitely worse.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com