Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans
Written by Jane Marie
Narrated by Jane Marie
4/5
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About this audiobook
Peabody and Emmy Award–winning journalist Jane Marie expands on her popular podcast The Dream to expose the scourge of multilevel marketing schemes and how they have profited off the evisceration of the American working class.
We’ve all heard of Amway, Mary Kay, Tupperware, and LuLaRoe, but few know the nefarious way they and countless other multilevel marketing (MLM) companies prey on desperate Americans struggling to make ends meet.
When factories close, stalwart industries shutter, and blue-collar opportunities evaporate, MLMs are there, ready to pounce on the crumbling American Dream. MLMs thrive in rural areas and on military bases, targeting women with promises of being their own boss and millions of dollars in easy income—even at the risk of their entire life savings. But the vast majority—99.7%—of those who join an MLM make no money or lose money, and wind up stuck with inventory they can’t sell to recoup their losses.
Featuring in-depth reporting and intimate research, Selling the Dream reveals how these companies—often owned by political and corporate elites, such as the Devos and the Van Andels families—have made a windfall in profit off of the desperation of the American working class.
Editor's Note
Exposé on MLMs…
Amway, Mary Kay, Herbalife, LuLaRoe, and more: Multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs) use self-made wealth and freedom as the proverbial carrot on a stick — a reward that rarely, if ever, materializes. Marie, the Peabody-winning journalist who previously produced “This American Life,” delivers an exposé on MLMs and the only people who profit from them (hint: it’s those at the top of the pyramid). “Selling the Dream” is a fascinating companion to Marie’s podcast about MLMs, “The Dream.”
Jane Marie
Jane Marie is a Peabody and Emmy Award–winning journalist, a former producer of This American Life, and the host of podcasts The Dream and DTR. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Cosmopolitan, The Toast, and more. She lives in Los Angeles with her daughter. Follow her on Twitter @SeeJaneMarie.
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