Tainted Milk

China is known for mass producing a lot of fake items: bags, cellphones, shirts, etc. Who would've thought that these wily businessmen would go as far as producing "fake" milk... semi-fake anyway. For those who are oblivious to what's happening, here's the scoop: it was discovered recently that a lot milk produced in China contained melanine. I don't know exactly what the effect of melamine is if ingested internally, but it's considered plastic so it can't be good. 

I've always been wary of China manufactured cosmetics and food products but I didn't expect the Chinese businessmen to stoop this low for profit's sake. Saying that the people in China are ruthless businessmen is an understatement. 

A lot of multinational companies are affected by this revelation. Even the coffee giant, Starbucks was not spared from this unexpected revelation. Expect the price of milk produced locally and imported from New Zealand and Australia to jack up. Nobody would dare buy China produced milk, or if they're wise, China manufactured food products (who knows what else they've added in other food products).

The Chinese government should be more stringent in punishing socially irresponsible and unethical business practices such as this one to avoid similar incidents in the future. 

Multi-Level Marketing/Pyramiding Schemes in Manila

One ways of striking it rich easy is to join a Multi-level Marketing company and to get a lot of recruits. With current economic conditions being unfavorable to start a business, being involved in these kinds of activities is becoming more and more attractive to those who want to earn additional income.

Members of multi-level marketing companies earn money through commission on his sales and the sales of the people who were recruited by him. Members of multi-level marketing companies capitalize on their ability to speak well and convince people to join. Here in Manila, most of those who join are either very smart or just plain gullible. Those who are very smart make lots of money. While those who are gullible just lose money.

Last night, a friend’s friend dropped by in order to “present” a product. Unfortunately for him, I already have a solid opinion about MLMs. He produced a flimsy looking product that the company was selling for USD450. In the back of my mind, I put the product price at around USD30-40. A lot of the product’s value is lost in commissions to the “recruiters” of the sales agent. I have to admire the company though for being able to come up with nice marketing and semi-credible research materials.

The agent went home unsuccessful in making a sale and my opinion on MLMs still remains the same.

MLMs are able to gain recruits by appealing to their greed. The success of MLMs to gain recruits depend on their ability to make earning money look easy. The main product of MLMs is being a part of the team. Secondary products are the actual products being sold. I chose not to involve myself in these kinds of activities since I find it hard to separate MLM activities from taking advantage of the less fortunate and the gullible. This is just my opinion though, some people have different opinions regarding this and I respect them.

There is a thin line between MLMs and pyramiding. I guess that the acid test for me if they are legitimate MLMs is that if they allow you to join the network without asking for money and give you products to sell on credit.

Before you join a multi-level marketing group, please visit this link http://www.vandruff.com/mlm.html. That way, at least you won't be doing it with your eyes closed.