pyramid schemes

[bostonbaby]

I have seen a fair bit on here lately about juice plus, forever living, younique etc.
Its always trotted out that it's a pyramid scheme and this is some sort of negative.
I go to work. I earn 16k there are 90odd others at the same grade as me. There are 8 supervisors each taking home 22k. There is one manager who earns 35k. The owner? Well, he drives a Ferrari and has an executive box at old Trafford so I'd say was fairly well off.
Aibu thinking my example is no less an example of a pyramid scheme than somebody sellng juice plus? Or am I missing the point entirely?

In your job you earn your salary for doing the work you do. In pyramid selling schemes, the main way you earn money is by recruiting people to work under you. If you don't keep on luring new people in, the pyramid collapses and you earn nothing.

I think you are missing the point tbh. The 90 odd on the same as you take home the same wage regardless. None of you need to recruit to make money. Those on more who are supervisors are paid more because they have more responsibilities than you not because they've recruited more people than you

You're missing the point, OP. Pyramid schemes don't pay based on your role, seniority, experience etc within a real organisation that actually sells a real product or a service - they generate income purely by compelling new recruits to pay to 'join', so that they then need to compel new recruits in their turn to recoup their own costs. Any product or service supposedly offered is subsidiary to recruiting more people, whose joining fees pay upwards through 'older' members.

You're missing the point Op. Forever Living. Juice Plus... legally they aren't pyramid schemes, they are mulit-level marketing (which genuinely isn't the same thing).

Before they were made illegal some pyramid schemes didn't even have a product
The recruiters paid cash which went to those above then tried to recruit more lower down so they could get cash
Scientology seems to run like a pyramid scheme with new recruits paying for learning/therapy/education/brainwashing and money filtered upwards

Or am I missing the point entirely?

You are missing the point entirely, as several people have pointed out. (So I'll just pile on.)

In a pyramid scheme, there is little or no real income being generated from the alleged "product", if one even exists. It is a money redistribution scheme where money is taken from new "workers" to pay people who joined earlier.

If you had to pay you employer to give you your job, and most of you income from it was tied to recruiting other people willing to pay the employer to give them a similar job, then it would be similar to a pyramid scheme.

Yes, you are missing the point OP. But the posters above have pretty much covered it

You're missing the point.

In a pyramid scheme the people above you make money directly from you, and you make money directly from the people below you. The people below you can't be promoted past you without you benefitting as well.

You are inextricably linked in a way which you aren't in an ordinary management structure. Everyone is paid according to their ability and/or pay scale and it's not dependent on what anyone else except you does, so the only person who directly benefits from your hard work is you.

There is also no direct financial incentive in a regular management structure for recruiting more people under you, whereas in a pyramid selling scheme it's a numbers game.