Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America

“Reads like a thriller . . . masterfully illuminates the tricks and sleights of hand that in multilevel marketing are simply the rules of doing business.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

MLM companies like Amway, Mary Kay, and Herbalife offer a world of pink Cadillacs, white-columned mansions, and—most precious of all—financial freedom. If, that is, you’re willing to shell out for expensive products and recruit everyone you know to buy them, and if they recruit everyone they know, too. Yet, overwhelming evidence suggests that most people lose money in multilevel marketing, and that most MLMs are pyramid schemes.

MLM has slithered in the wake of every economic crisis of the last century, from the Depression to the pandemic, ensnaring laid-off workers, stay-at-home moms, and teachers—anyone who has been left behind by rising inequality. Meanwhile, it has enriched powerful people, like the DeVos and Van Andel families, Warren Buffett, and President Donald Trump, all while eroding public institutions and the social safety net. A wild trip down an endless rabbit hole of greed and exploitation, Little Bosses Everywhere exposes MLM for what it is: a massive money-making scam and radical political conspiracy that has remade American society.