How common are MLMs in the economy? (piefed.social)

submitted 2 days ago by Swaus01@piefed.social to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca

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i still visit reddit via redlib to read BestOfRedditorUpdates, and a story i read this morning stood out to me because of its casual mentioning that a "protagonist" of the story works at an MLM and accepts this as normal.

Meanwhile I have always heard that MLMs are dangerous, 100% of the time, and can get cult-like, can underpay you (or not really pay you at all). Reading the post and thinking about them just accepting MLMs unsettled me because it reminded me that there are a few where i live, that i've seen some in job applications, and i started to wonder if the place where i work currently could be a sort of MLM. After all, plenty of workplaces in this economic system exhibit qualities in-line with MLM structure.

But my ultimate question is just this: How prevalent are MLMs? Are they just an accepted part of local economies? Do city councils work with them/allow them to exist despite the inherent shadiness?

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[-] one_old_coder@piefed.social 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I understand better. In France, most mayors and/or councils don't have a say on where businesses can be or what they can do.

Restrictions are usually for:

supermarkets (but they are big so control is more obvious)
tobacco shops and bars that sell alcohol
cults like scientology but it's a very special case

Actually, I don't think I have ever seen a "MLM place" anywhere, it's usually door to door like Tupperware (not an MLM but you see what I'm talking about).

this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026

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