Episode 3 - Money Trees

Parallel Lines Project - Mark Moldowan Social Communications

INTRO

Welcome back to the Parallel Lines Project - the podcast where I separate fact from fiction and hopefully tell you an interesting story. I’m your host Mark Moldowan.

Que Theme Music

On this week’s podcast, a warning. This topic is going to be a bit less light hearted than the last two and I’m sure I’ll get some angry emails but - Money Trees. We all want one. Fast cash. Easy income. A good way to make money for yourself. No one wants to work a dead-end, nine-to-five for a boss they hate - but is there really an easy way to make money? There’s a few companies out there that think so. And they want to share their secrets with you. Just be careful - if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Then for the recipe - slow cooker butter chicken. This recipe is pure awesomeness. I usually make huge batches of this, freeze it in portions and use it as a quick and delicious dinner for lazy weekdays. Super simple too.

But first.

ACT 1 - CORRECTIONS, OMISSIONS AND GENERALLY SHOOTING THE SHIT.

Hopefully third time's the charm. I’m aware a rough cut was uploaded for the last episode - and I apologize. Hopefully the ghost of Harold Ramis won't take revenge on me. If I wake up and my phone still says November 23rd I’ll know I’m in trouble.

I also wanted to point out a few other cities that had some pretty cool underground city tours. Both Portland and San Francisco have pretty extensive underground cities as well that can be checked out. Again, never been on these tours so this is not really an endorsement so much as a general awareness announcement.

I also want to point out what one listener had pointed out to me - the Canada Post tunnel was actually from Waterfront to the old Canada Post headquarters that no longer exists - not the current location. As well, the tunnel was not built for the war in particular - though it was used extensively during this time - but as a quick and easy way for mail to be transferred to and from Waterfront while avoiding the Downtown traffic. Shit - traffic downtown must have been a nightmare even back then.

I’ve also had a couple of questions about the direction I’m going with this podcast. I really haven’t in tended to keep these stories local to Vancouver. The first rule of writing is write what you know and writing a podcast is no exception. Trust me, I’m not going to only do Vancouver stories, but it’s inevitable that they will show up from time to time just due to my geography. That and I fucking love this city and I think there’s a lot of people in the dark when it comes to local culture - and I’m including old-stock Vancouverites in this too. I mean, there’s a reason our city is used by Hollywood as a generic backdrop for multiple locations - we actually believe we have no history or personality here and it sucks. Some fucking cool shit has happened here and I love sharing it with people. End rant.

Now on with the show.

ACT 2 - MONEY TREES

So I may not have been truthful with you. I don’t actually technically live in Vancouver proper. I live in the GVRD, or Greater Vancouver Regional District. Basically, I’m a suburbanite. I live in Richmond to be exact - if you’ve ever been to Vancouver you have probably been there. It’s where the airport is.

Well, in my not-so-little suburb, just around the corner from my house there’s a small commercial block littered with warehouses, office buildings and a really terrible greasy spoon that I have shamed my body at way too many times. Shout out to the Golden Coin - you’re resturaunt may be dirty, your menu questionable and your patrons surly, but you make a mean wonton soup. Also they have a burger named the Royale with Cheese. They have no idea what the fuck a quarter pounder is.

Anyways, in this business block is the western headquarters for a company by the name of NuSkin. I used to work in that same block and drove past it to park nearly every day. It was a huge building too. This isn’t some small, one or two office building, this was a two story complex complete with warehouse space.

I was curious as to what they did so naturally I looked them up. I don’t think I was prepared for what I was about to find. A bunch of people arguing.

You can look up some of these arguments yourself just by plugging in “is NuSkin a scam?” into your search engine of choice. At first glance all you see is proof of the saying “opinions are like assholes - everyone’s got one.” However looking in just a little deeper there’s something just not sitting right with NuSkin.

You see, NuSkin is a Multi-Level Marketing company - or an MLM for short. The basic idea is simple - you sign up with the company for a small fee to become a certified distributor. You then buy product at wholesale from the parent company and sell it directly to friends and family. You get to keep the difference between the wholesale and retail cost of the items. You get to work from home, be your own boss and make fat stacks of cash all while selling a product that will miraculously prevent you from aging.

I’m not being facetious either. Check out the company’s tagline - OUR DIFFERENCE IS DEMONSTRATED THROUGH OUR OPPORTUNITY. AT NU SKIN, PROFESSIONAL DISTRIBUTOR LEADERS THRIVE AS THEY INSPIRE AND EMPOWER OTHERS. DISTRIBUTORS’ LIVES ARE BETTER TODAY BECAUSE THEY JOINED NU SKIN. WE ARE COMMITTED TO PROVIDING THE BEST OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE YOUR DREAMS A REALITY.

Of course it’s in all caps.

You also see a lot of stories in comment sections of videos and on blogs about people making six figure incomes. You hear a lot of repeated words - financial independence, six-figure income, positive thinking and so forth. People swear up and down that they are making tonnes of money or at least know someone who is. If you read some of these reviews, NuSkin is the perfect place for positive thinkers to make bank.

NuSkin, by most accounts is a scam. No questions about it.

First let's look at the facts. Being a publically traded company, NuSkin does have to file reports regarding its business to the US Government. It can be difficult to read through their reports, and at first glance you see some pretty impressive numbers. When looking at their footnotes - which actually read like a report within a report considering how big they are - 95% of their distributor commissions are intentionally left out of the body of the report. Wading through the numbers further, the average commission for a NuSkin distributor is $600 USD per year in 2012. Only 451 people made over $15,000. That’s 0.2% of all distributors. This, as well, is just the commission each rep earned. It does not take into account the cost of promotional items or of any unsold product.

This doesn’t even paint a total picture of the problem.

NuSkin refuses to report their specific turnover numbers, though they admit that it is “high.” As well, according to Barron’s Magazine, in order for all of their reported profits and payouts to make sense, at least 65% of their product must be sold to people completely unaffiliated with the company. these numbers as well are not actually reported. The company claims their sales are well within this estimate, but have actually no evidence to back this up. Besides, think how easy it would be to hide or skew this data.

NuSkin’s biggest response to these accusations is that the proof is in the pudding - they are a publically traded company and have been routinely voted onto Forbes most trusted companies lists. They are also still operating after nearly 30 years in business - if they were just another pyramid scheme how would this be possible?

The answer is simple. They straddle a legal grey area and being a publically traded company means nothing when it comes to integrity. Look up Tycho.

They also have been successfully prosecuted in the past.

In the 90’s multiple US states had successfully settled with NuSkin over claims regarding the potential income of their distributors. the FTC has also legally forced them to pay damages and rescind claims regarding the potential for for distributors to turn a profit.

Lets look at their mission statement again:

OUR DIFFERENCE IS DEMONSTRATED THROUGH OUR OPPORTUNITY. AT NU SKIN, PROFESSIONAL DISTRIBUTOR LEADERS THRIVE AS THEY INSPIRE AND EMPOWER OTHERS. DISTRIBUTORS’ LIVES ARE BETTER TODAY BECAUSE THEY JOINED NU SKIN. WE ARE COMMITTED TO PROVIDING THE BEST OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE YOUR DREAMS A REALITY.

Notice how in their official communications not once do they mention anything about financial independence or making money. However, if you ever do get dragged into one of their recruitment sessions, the potential for self employment and financial independence is a huge point. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think $600 bucks is enough to live on for a year.

The company has also plunged its hooks into the US government. in 2011, journalists linked the two CEO’s to millions of dollars donated in superPACs and a company spokesman was elected into the US Senate in 2008.

The problem with NuSkin and the MLM business model in general is that it’s literally impossible to survive on. The model is totally skewed towards those who can recruit more people to sell the product. It’s impossible for a single person to do enough direct to consumer sales to make any sort of real money. However, the story they tell is totally inspiring. It’s the American dream - get the money you deserve for your hard work. Build your own business. To butcher Steinbeck - Americans are not poor, their temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

The product they peddle as well is absolute snake oil. I won’t get into the exploitation of scientific illiteracy in the idea that a cream or a vitamin supplement can be used for gene therapy, however I will point out that in 2011, a consumer advocacy group analyzed a supplement peddled by NuSkin and found that it failed to live up to even the content requirements.

MLM is inherently cult-like. It’s exploitative and it’s financially ruinous to nearly every single person involved. Those in the system dogmatically defend it. However, the tables do seem to be turning.

In December of 2012, a couple of New York hedge fund managers actually did something useful for once. They began to question a publically traded MLM by the name of Herbalife regarding its business practices. The answers were embarrassing causing Herbalife to drop nearly 30% in value on the New York Stock Exchange. This rippled into other MLM’s including NuSkin. On their website, NuSkin proudly reports it made of $3 billion in 2013. You see, they use 2013 because they’ve been on a pretty steady decline since. In 2014 they made just over $2.5 billion and their stock has been dropping ever since.

Last year as well, the government of China began an investigation into NuSkin as part of a crackdown on pyramid schemes.

In the end, if money was as easy to make as many of these companies claim it is, everyone would be a millionaire.

I guess Steinbeck was right.

ACT 3 - THE RECIPE

Money just doesn’t grow on trees - and because of that we need to save where we can. The recipe this week is great for that. This is a completely delicious and authentic butter chicken recipe that is super inexpensive to make, is easy to prepare and is just plain tasty.

Now before we start, a few things about Indian cooking: masala’s are basically spice mixes. Each one is a little different from brand to brand, but they generally contain the same stuff. If you want to make this from scratch, go right ahead. If not, a good Indian grocer should have everything you need.

So first up, the ingredients:

1 lb boneless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized pieces

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp oil

15 green cardamom pods

2 tsp curry powder

1 tbsp curry paste

1 tsp cayenne powder

2 tsp tandoori masala

1 tsp garam masala

1 400 ml can coconut milk

1 cup plain yogurt

1 5.5 fl oz can of tomato paste

Salt to taste

First, using a needle and thread, thread the cardamom together into a kind of rope. Place them in the slow cooker with the thread coming out the top. this will make it way easier to remove them at the end. Heat a frying pan to a medium-high heat. Toast the dry spices in the pan and set aside. Heat the oil and butter. Cook the onion and garlic until translucent and fragrant. Add the chicken and brown. Add the entire contents of the pan to the slow cooker, then add all of the other ingredients. Stir until well mixed and put the slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours. Serve with naan and basmati rice. You can also garnish it with a bit of chopped coriander.

Oh, and if you want it mild, don’t add the cayenne and use mild masalas.

Mmmm…. Butter chicken…

Well, that’s it for episode three of the Parallel Line Project. Hope you enjoyed it. If you liked it please leave your comments and rate it on iTunes. You can also see the transcript and show notes at markmoldowan.com/podcast . All music on this podcast is under the creative commons license and was found at the Free Music Archive. Our theme song is Against the Wall by Boxcat Games, other music included in this podcast is credited to their respected artists in the show notes.

Have a great week everyone, and keep it weird.