I've been lurking since thread 18 and applaud the great work you are all doing in exposing the evils of MLMs!
A few thoughts have occurred to me:
Yesterday I worked from home. I started at 9am, took half an hour for lunch and worked until 5pm, when I had an appointment. I did a bit more work when I came home and then finished for the day by half past 6. I earn a decent wage which I can expect to receive at the end of every month - plus all the other benefits like a pension, sick pay, annual leave, etc.
It struck me that this is the kind of lifestyle that MLMs claim they can give you but it's a fallacy (unless you own the MLM). The tiny percentage of people who actually earn reasonable money in MLMs can never switch off from 'work'. They spend most of their time and money propping up the house of cards so they can maintain their position next month. Ironic!
I did a four-year degree, two years of further study and three years' work experience to get to the position described above. MLMs appeal to the greedy, the vulnerable and those with few qualifications. One of my Facebook friends has recently become a Younique bot, though she doesn't seem to be getting anywhere with it. She has practically no qualifications and recently got divorced (in her early twenties!). Hers is a sad situation which is unfortunately an easy target as far as the MLMs are concerned. I wanted to say to her 'please go to university or get a proper job' but I couldn't think of a way of saying it that didn't make me sound like a complete arsehole.
Interestingly, my DP is a trainee accountant and he is pretty sure that his professional body (ICAEW) has or had some kind of prohibition on its members working for MLMs. He couldn't remember where he read it so I've asked him to look into it and let me know more. I'll report back when I find out!