DeVos:   Wall Street should say they are sorry!

Amway co-founder Rich DeVos has a little advice for those who caused the recent upheaval on Wall Street: Admit you were wrong and say, "I'm sorry."  That was published 9/22/2008 in the Grand Rapids Press after DeVos spoke at the Economic club of Grand Rapids.  DeVos was discussing some of the ideas in his upcoming book  "10 powerful phrases for positive people". 

Considering the source, this struck a nerve with me. I'm not sure Wall Street did anything wrong - at least it is not doing anything different from what those promoting the Amway business do and preach.  Both believe in unchecked and unbridled capitalism, and both promote the achievement of gluttonous American consumerism through a distorted
vision of "free enterprise." Both have demonstrated that they are not above telling "little white lies" to cover up the truth, and avoid talking about the hard facts. Both think that being positive, even if deceptive, is more noble than presenting negative truths. Both withhold important facts from the public that might paint their respective industries in a negative light.  Both try to manipulate their environment whether it be the government, the regulators, or the press to maximize their own profits. Both live in denial until it is too late.

Front of Amway Headquarters

Let's be honest, Rich. Wall Street was just practicing "free enterprise," and that is exactly what Amway claims to be and do. The fallout from the Wall Street debacle has just more public than the fall out from the Amway business. Take a close look at the Amway business and you will no doubt see a small fraction of success stories, but no one tells you about the other people whose upline mentor told them to cash in the 401k, or life insurance policy, or take out a loan
to invest in their own independent "Amway" business. You said it yourself once - there is no word mentioned about all the people who left the business worse off financially than when they entered it!

So where is YOUR apology to all these people, Rich? There is plenty of fallout in Amway just like on Wall Street, it is just that Amway is much smaller and has done a better job of keeping its victims blaming themselves.

• Why now do you want Wall Street to apologize for practicing your brand of "free enterprise"? Why shouldn't you apologize for all the misgivings in Amway? Why shouldn't you apologize for not kicking the systems out in 1983 after your directly speaking tapes? Oh yeah, I remember . . . It was costing you too much money.

• Should Amway apologize for forcing Amway Asia Pacific minority shareholders to sell their 8.5 million shares stock for $18/share on the day it was announced that China would be admitted into the World Trade Organization?   Years earlier Amway's stock was issued for around $28/share.   Amway must have netted a cool $80+ million on that sell high, buy low trick.  That is just free enterprise and capitalism, right Rich?   The market had fairly valued the stock before the tender offer, right?  The stock was in the toilet previous to the tender offer and the $18 a share was a nice premium to the depressed market price at that time.   It would be worth several times the $18 price now.  Those stupid lemmings holding the stock however could not see in the future to know the stock would later soar, like Amway China sales did.  Those poor shareholders were just victims of having to play by the free enterprise rules of the majority shareholder can set the rules.   Tough luck for them but that is free enterprise and capitalism. Anyway buyer beware, right?

• While on the topic of apologies, maybe you should make a public apology to James Dyson after Amway stole his vacuum cleaner design  Is it not a big corporation's free enterprise right to steal the design of a hapless start up with little capital and probably little or no money to defend his patents?  Too bad you got a out of court settlement just before the court was probably going to hand Dyson the win.  How much extra did you have to pay him to spare you the embarrassment of losing in court and having the court say Amway stole his design?

• Rich, how about an apology to the Canadian government for all those bogus invoices to the Canadian Customs?   You would have served time for that if you did not cut the deal to have the company plead guilty to criminal fraud.  I guess minimizing your tax bill is also part of free enterprise. 

Why does DeVos want Wall Street to apologize to the losers in the Wall Street free enterprise game when DeVos does not apologize for the losers in the Amway free enterprise game?   Rich, what happened to buyer beware in the mortgage bond industry?   Amway Asia Pacific stock?  New inventors?   Wall Street was not transparent, and Amway was never transparent with their information.   Why should Wall Street apologize and not Amway? 

A friend sent me a link to a four part BBC video series available on Google Video.   The Century of the Self  by Adam Curtin.   I couldn't help but laugh at the following which was eight minutes into the video.

"Propaganda got to be a bad word because of the Germans using it, so what I did was to try and find some other words so we found the words counsel on public relations"
Edward L. Bernays the father of public relations. 

No doubt Amway regularly engages in propaganda public relations to promote the positive image of their business, just like all big US corporations.  The BBC videos are interesting in that they detail how companies exploit human physiological urges using advertising and propaganda public relations  to maximize their profits, of course all in the name of free enterprise and capitalism.  Whether the consumer or distributor is treated as a mindless zombie or reduces the human element to another link in the chain, is really of no consequence to the maximization of profits, at any cost by companies like Amway.    Amway and their lines of affiliation exploit these same subconscious human physiological urges of their distributors by showing them the endless materialism exhibited by their  upline leaders, and telling them they can have it too.  I found the videos very interesting.  I see Amway being no different from any other profit motivated entity.

Wall Street was not transparent with their information.  Amway is not transparent with their information.  To be transparent would give up your advantage to make a profit.  Amway could not have scored the coup with the Amway Asia Pacific shareholders if they had told them to hold on and wait for the WTO decision.    The key to making money is taking advantage of information inequalities. Transparency works to disperse information.  Will Amway become anymore transparent after the Wall Street debacle?  I bet not. 

Rich, why not just praise the winners in the Wall Street free enterprise game like the Amway free enterprise winners are praised instead of asking them to apologize?  The president of Goldman Sachs got a $50+ million bonus for his work in 2008.  What does he have to apologize for?   Being successful at his game?  So what that people bought their repackaged mortgage bonds and lost money.  That is the hard reality of free enterprise, is it not?    Dexter Yager got his $3.3 million bonus check .   You don't see people asking him to apologize because he was good at his game, although he helped thousands of people lose thousands of dollars in the Amway opportunity.

Goldman Sachs paid $16 billion in bonuses in 2008.   The per capita bonus was about $600,000.  Should we not boast that as positive?  Amway uses   propaganda like,  "Hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs have earned more than $2.2 billion in bonuses and other incentives since 1999."  Of course there is no mention of all the distributors that reported losses on their taxes due to their Amway business.  There is no need to ruin the effect of the propaganda public relations to include irrelevant information about the people who are not successful, right?

There are of course many people who saw the collapse coming and took positions to profit it.  Why not praise all the people who went short and profited from the misguided mass psychology?    The collapse is just another form of free enterprise and capitalism, is it not?    Buy low, sell high, or sell high, and buy back later low.  Kind of like what Amway did with the Amway Asia Pacific stock.

On another note, I believe there is a silent connection between Amway and the mortgage crisis.  There were lots of Amway distributors short on cash to "invest" in their Amway business so they did what every good American did and that was to go deeper in debt.   They made mortgage equity withdrawals, refinanced possibly with variable rate mortgages and increased credit card debt to finance their Amway business.    Amway can be proud that it helped fuel the fire of the current credit crisis.  

Give the masses what they want, even if they are too stupid to know that is not what is best for them.   All in the name of free enterprise and capitalism.    Rich, free enterprise does not apologize for the all out exploitation at any cost, which it is programmed to do, and I'm sure you won't either. 

“Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend, do it in
the name of free enterprise, you'll be justified in the end.”