Category Archives: General

Inequality? Or Just A Fact Of Life?

 

Inequality? Or Just A Fact Of Life?

How Do The Rich Get Even Richer? 

I think most of us have heard the saying, “the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer.” And the rich keep getting richer mainly because many are paying little in the way of taxes, if anything at all. How is this possible? What are the brazen loopholes and tricks that the 1% use to stay ahead and continue to gain wealth?   

Over the years, there has been much discussion, studies, and headlines around a billionaires tax and what it means for us non-billionaires. So why is there all this talk about billionaires and taxes in the US once again? 

Well, that's for two key reasons. Firstly, the policymakers in Washington are trying to go after this class of people with new tax proposals to help fund the American Families Plan.

The other fundamental reason it’s back in the spotlight is the amount of wealth accumulated over the last decade by specific individuals. And their wealth has been taxed at extraordinarily low rates. 


Image Source: Lisa Larson-Walker/ProPublica

Thanks to the Secret IRS files, the data was recently brought to light, essentially a leak of tax information that ProPublica covered in June. The leak contained vast troves of IRS data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation's wealthiest people covering more than 15 years. 

The Secret IRS Files

This report uncovered some of the most Illuminating stats of people like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, etc. From 2014 to 2018, the 25 richest Americans increased their wealth by a collective $401 billion.

However, they only paid taxes of $13.6 billion during that period, equating to an effective rate of about 3.4%. Crazy, right? And if we were to drill down into some of the richest of this rich list, the numbers get even crazier. 

The illustration below shows the taxes paid on wealth growth for Buffett, Bezos, Bloomberg, and Musk. Buffett only paid an effective rate of 0.10%. Paying such low tax rates, it's no wonder that Buffett has become one of the biggest proponents of raising rates on the uber-wealthy like himself. 


Image Source: ProPublica

Now, you can see the effect of rates is 0.98%. 1.30% and 3.27% for Bezos, Bloomberg, and Musk, respectively. 

Another interesting graphic from this report is the one below.  It compares wealth growth and taxes paid by Bezos and the average American family. That noticeable dip on the household graph is that during the 2008 recession, many families lost their homes, where the bulk of their assets were. Bezos mostly owned stock, so he escaped any foreclosure. 


Image Source: ProPublica

The point here is not to shame these billionaires, as they have built successful companies, and capitalism rewards risk-takers. Moreover, it's also worth pointing out that all these folks have been paying what is legally owed. 

They've been doing what any rational person would be, using the tax code to their advantage. But this report highlights that the burden of proportional tax is borne much harder by those less well-off. And the reason for that is because of that same tax code.

 

The Enigmatic Codes

So let's take a closer look into these complex codes. Before we can delve into the specific tactics used by the rich, we have to understand precisely how most of them make their money. That's because the way that they make money will impact the type of taxes they'll pay. 

Most people will pay an income tax on their income which is mostly your primary source of income. In the case of most of society, this is their salary or wage. This income is taxed at different rates and goes up to 37%  at the US Federal level for the highest tax bracket. 

The examples used are from US taxes. Although the practice is broadly the same in other countries, This income tax is usually hard to avoid, as it's taxed when it's earned, and in many cases, taken out of your paycheck. 

However, when it comes to the uber-rich, they own assets that are taxed as a capital gain only when they appreciate. Notably, long-term capital gains tax for assets held for more than a year is much lower than income tax. 

For example, the top tax rate for capital gains in the US is 23.8%, which is much lower than the maximum rate on ordinary income. Based on the raw percentage, that would be the same rate of tax paid by someone who earns between $86k and $164k. So, you can now see why so many of these billionaire founders of companies choose to take token salaries.

Bezos earns a measly $80k, and Steve Jobs famously took a one-dollar salary. Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison have followed suit. By doing this, they're avoiding having to pay any income taxes at all. They are taking stock and options on a stock that will only be taxed at the capital gains rate, over 13% lower than they would have paid, should they have opted to take income. 

But the critical point is this capital gains tax is only due to being paid once the gain is realized, in other words, sold. They are not obligated to make this sale in any way, shape, or form. They can hold on to these assets for a lifetime and never pay tax on them, and that is precisely what most of them do. 

So, how can these guys afford to live without realizing those gains? There’s a common misconception that wealthy people try to avoid debt, and it’s actually quite the opposite. They are among the most prolific users, and they do it in ingenious and efficient ways. One of these is borrowing against their assets and living off borrowed money. They're using their vast assets as collateral to take out debt. 

Buy Borrow Die Tactic

They’re doing this because they don't have to sell those assets and realize that gain, so they can avoid paying any taxes on the rapid appreciation in their wealth and still live like kings. This self-explanatory tactic is called, Buy, Borrow, Die. 

In a nutshell, they accumulate valuable assets that can be used as collateral assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, art, etc. Then once they have these assets, they move on to the next step, looking to borrow cash using the assets as collateral. Then, of course, the inevitable happens, and they leave their fortune to their heirs. 

The first two steps may sound similar to a home equity line of credit, but it's much more favorable than that. We usually have pretty onerous terms when we apply to get credit and use our house as collateral. We have higher interest rates, and the amount of credit we get on our homes is limited. 

However, if you offer a bank highly liquid securities as collateral, you can get an absolute bargain. According to this piece in the Wall Street Journal, some of these lenders don't even need credit reports. Goldman Sachs’s private bank has even offered securities-based loans on anything from $75k to $25 million, with no personal financial statements, tax returns, or paper applications. 

In terms of interest rates, Merrill Lynch quotes 3.2% for those with assets of over $1 million and a low 0.87% for those with assets of over $100 million. Those are rates of interest and terms that we could only dream about. Then once they have this cash, they can do whatever they want with it. 

Yes, they have to pay interest, but it's trivial. Moreover, the value of their assets usually appreciates more than the interest rate. This is termed Positive Carry, where they end up better off than before. 

But the real kicker is that interest on loans is tax-deductible. These interest payments can be used to offset their already low tax bill. And, of course, they don't really ever have to pay this off. The banks are okay with rolling it over into perpetuity. 

You get to live your best life and still retain the upside on all those assets. You see, it benefits the banks to have such high-value collateral. It's easy to liquidate, unlike houses, and the bank itself can earn high returns on those assets. It’s the rehypothecation process, and most of the nearly 1000 wealthiest Americans use this tactic. 

For example, Elon Musk, and cable billionaire, John Malone have pledged $150 billion of their stock for loans. There is the risk that the stock collateral falls in price and that these billionaires will get a margin call. Still, these assets generally appreciate, especially with all that money printing going on at the FED. 


Image Source: Tenor. Funarg

Now, there's a lot of accumulated capital gains sitting out there, and by some estimates, it's as large as $5 trillion. This wealth has never been taxed and never will be taxed in some cases. That's because of the final step required of these billionaires, which is to die. 

When these billionaires with so much wealth eventually die, they leave that wealth to their heirs. They may have outstanding loans that these heirs then pay off; however, they keep the assets. These assets may incur an estate tax, but several strategies around gifting, donations, and charitable foundations lessen the burden, but that's irrelevant when considering that these heirs won't have to pay those accumulated unrealized capital gains. 

It is all thanks to something called the Step-Up in Basis. Essentially, when people die and their heirs inherit their fortune, the “cost” of the investment in the eyes of the IRS is the value of the asset that they received. That makes the asset free from any capital gains tax. If or when the asset appreciates again in value, the tax payable is only the difference, not the original price.

This is how some family dynasties have held onto their wealth for generations. They can pay legions of estate planners and accountants to structure the most sophisticated of vehicles that are beyond the reach of us mere mortals. 

 

The Ongoing Debate

Many progressive politicians looked upon these tax strategies for the elite rich with some indignation. They are now at the forefront of a debate around billionaire taxes in the US. A proposal by the Biden Administration plans to come after the unrealized gains of assets held by wealthy individuals to help fund the massive social spending and climate bill. 

Irrespective of what the bill will finally contain, it's clear that part of the effort to pay for it involves taxing wealthy individuals. For example, back in May, the initial target of the bill was the Capital Gains Tax rate. 

As they were aware of the fact that CGT was much lower than income taxes, the Democrats proposed increasing the top rate for CGT to 39.6%. If you include the Medicare surtax, it will be 43.4%, with some state taxes increasing those numbers. 

This proposal was a tough sell as it applied to anyone with over $1million in income, which is a much larger subset of people than just billionaires, so that was overturned. The Biden White House returned with the proposal to tax the unrealized capital gains of some of the wealthiest Americans, a much smaller subset of around a thousand people.  

That didn’t go down too well either, as it sounded like a wealth tax, and in fact, that’s how it was marketed to some progressives. Janet Yellen explained that it was “merely a capital gains tax on liquid assets held by extremely wealthy individual billionaires. I wouldn't call it a wealth tax.”  

 

The Terminology Not The Real Issue

Whatever they want to call it, it is clearly a tax designed to go after the wealthy for their unrealized gains, a tax that many legal Scholars said may even be unconstitutional. But it's not the terminology that was controversial; it’s the whole concept itself. Who would determine whether an asset was sufficiently liquid? Where do you draw the line?

And if you do draw the line, would this discriminate against some billionaires in favor of others? Would those billionaires who have most of their wealth in stock have to pay that unrealized gain tax, while others who own land don't?

What if these billionaires have to pay that tax in one year on a Gain, but the following year, there's a loss? Shouldn’t they be entitled to a tax refund on the back of that loss? Will the IRS pay that out? 

What if some of the most ultra-wealthy have to sell their holdings to pay these taxes? What impact could that have on the broader market? Assuming someone like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos had to sell tens of billions worth of stock in the companies they own, would that not harm the stock market? The same stock market that millions of middle-class Americans are invested in with their 401ks. All of that, for a mere potential tax benefit of $250 billion. 

In response to the above questions, the answer lies in the evidence of how these wealth taxes have worked previously in Europe. In 1990, twelve European countries had a wealth tax, and however, there is only four today. One of the most recent casualties of the wealth tax was France which scrapped it in 2017.

This has provided a practical case study to analyze the real effects of these wealth taxes. In France’s case, since the 1980s, it has had an annual wealth tax on all those individuals who had over 1.3 million euros in assets. 

The first and most obvious impact of this wealth tax was that it drove the billionaires out. There was an exodus of wealthy people from France when it was in place, and because billionaires are the people who have the most means to move their tax domicile, they can easily move to more friendly regimes. By the prime minister's estimate, some 60,000 people with 35 billion euros worth of assets left between 2000 and 2016. 

Furthermore, the wealth tax was tough to enforce and costly. According to French Economist Eric Pichet, the cost of administering the tax was twice as much as was brought in. The country's fiscal budget was not only worse off than if it hadn't gone after this tax, but it now had even fewer billionaires to tax in the first place. 


Source: The Economic Consequences of the French Wealth Tax

Many other countries in Europe came to the same conclusion – the administrative burden just didn't make much sense. There were so many exemptions and loopholes that the rich could almost wholly avoid it. Then, of course, there was the impact this had on general Investments. 

Despite what most people tend to think about billionaires, their Investments do help to fuel innovation and economic growth. This was precisely the reason given by the Austrian government when it eliminated its tax, and it placed an “economic burden on Austrian Enterprises.” Switzerland also illustrates the potential drawbacks of a wealth tax in this article

Consequently,  Europe got a real-life practical example of the Laffer Curve. This well-known economic theory shows the decreasing marginal returns of taxes, and you get to a point where increasing taxes brings in even less revenue. 


Image Source: Fee.org.The Laffer Curve

 

Closing Thoughts

Now we’re faced with the pandemic that destroyed our economies and pushed millions into unemployment, but the rich got even richer during this time. Not only that, but they managed to accumulate most of that wealth without having to pay their fair share of tax on it. 

Naturally, this has led to a backlash from the populace. It feels just so inherently wrong that Warren Buffett pays 0.10% on his taxes, while his secretary pays over 37%. But to Warren's credit, he has been the one to point out this disparity

However, having said all of that, the alternatives don't sound too appealing either. Taxing unrealized gains is a recipe for potential disaster that could bog the IRS down for years. A proposal that the rich would fight tooth and nail and which could be proven to be unconstitutional. 

General wealth taxes have also been highly ineffective when implemented in European countries. Their impact has made governments and citizens poorer, while the rich simply migrate to other more favorable jurisdictions and enjoy their wealth there instead.

Some argue that we shouldn't be taxing success. If you disincentivize someone enough, then they will reduce their economic output. (That's the Laffer Curve.) I’m sure many would not be happy if the government wanted to tax all the gains on the cryptocurrency they’re hodling that has not been sold or has any intention to sell.  

I’m sure that many homeowners feel the same about their houses or apartments. Does this mean that the billionaires who own stock cannot feel similarly angered by the proposal? It's a complex and sensitive predicament for sure. 

The fact remains, though, as pointed out by the likes of Joseph Stiglitz and many others, that inequality is a blight on our society; tackling inequality would make life better for billions of people and supercharge the world economy yet, it's easier said than done. 

Perhaps instead of targeting the wealthy individuals at the top of the pyramid. It would be better and fairer to go after the corporations that have made them rich in the first place. The corporations with billion-dollar profits and tiny tax bills. The corporations that offshore their income and treat their workers appallingly in many cases. 

Individual enterprise should be allowed to flourish, but corporate greed is a much more insidious and damaging force in the world. So, maybe they should go after that instead. What are your thoughts? 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Resources: Coin Bureau, ProPublica

 

ELROND – Taking Blockchain And Crypto To The Next Level

ELROND – Taking Blockchain And Crypto To The Next Level

A Technology Ecosystem For The New Internet

Cryptocurrencies have many use cases. Some act as a store of value, others power blockchains that make it possible to create trustless digital contracts and permissionless, decentralized applications. Some cryptocurrencies are pegged to Fiat currencies to allow for stable transfers of value, and a few even underpin protocols that offer decentralized data, storage, and video streaming. 

Each of these use cases requires a particular set of blockchain attributes and economic incentives. This is why it's often said that there is no single cryptocurrency project that can do it all. That may well be true, but there is one that comes close. 

 

What Is Elrond? 

Elrond has combined the scarcity of Bitcoin, the programmability of Ethereum, and the speed of next-generation cryptos, like Solana, to create a cryptocurrency network unlike any other. Elrond is a platform built for internet-scale and capable of processing thousands of transactions per second at $0.001 per transaction, and able to scale to hundreds of thousands with demand.

Elrond’s distinction is being a project with a soul. One that has united forces of an incredibly vibrant community of 190,000 people, spanning 18 languages and in almost 30 countries. Elrond aims to create the backbone for high bandwidth, transparent financial system, and extending universal access to anyone, anywhere.

Elrond’s egold (EGLD) native token has exploded in value over the last year and seems to be poised for more gains. The Blockchain project has been considered under the radar and received very little crypto media exposure until now. 


Image source: Elrond · Growth

Historically, Elrond was founded in 2017 by Benjamin Mincu, Lucien Mincu, and Lucien Todea. The Elrond white paper was released in November 2018, and the elrond main net went live in late July 2020. Like Cardano and Polkadot, Elrond is a competitor to Ethereum and seeks to be the foundation for the “new internet economy.”

 

Growth At All Costs

Unlike many smart contract cryptos, Elrond has a “growth at all costs” approach and has wasted no time onboarding individuals and institutions. It seems to be a perpetual process as Elrond has announced so many partnerships and integrations almost daily that it’s too many to mention here, so I’ll touch on some highlights. 


Coin98Analytics produced this graphic to demonstrate the enormity of the Elrond ecosystem.

 

The Ledger hardware wallet enabled support for egold in November 2020 and partnered with the Poly Network to make it possible to use Bitcoin, Ethereum, and dozens of other cryptocurrencies on Elrond as wrapped ESDT tokens.  

Elrond's documentation explains that they will be native to the Elrond chain, like e-gold. This means that they won't require a smart contract to issue and send like ERC 20 tokens on Ethereum. This protocol is very similar to Cardano’s Native assets, which have almost the same properties as ESDT Tokens. 

In December 2020, Elrond announced that it had partnered with Bitgo, which is one of the largest cryptocurrency Custodians. Also, Binance joined Elond as a staking provider. In October 2021, Elrond commenced collaboration with Ardana Stablecoin Hub on Cardano Blockchain to make egold (EGLD) one of the first native assets to collateralize stablecoins issued on the Cardano network. 

In the long-term, this collaboration will make it possible to bridge assets, such as the Cardano-native ADA token or other tokens issued on the two blockchains. This will allow their value to be leveraged in DeFi opportunities available on both networks.  

Beniamin Mincu, Elrond Network CEO says,

“This creative exploration of collateralizing a stable coin on one chain with the native coin of another can be a good starting point for interoperability between two progressive global ecosystems that are anchored in performance and innovation.”  

At the beginning of this year, Elrond began its initiative of onboarding the next billion people called 100 days of Hypergrowth. In addition to onboarding as many projects and users as possible, Elrond has launched its fully community-owned defy ecosystem, the Maiar DEX DeFi platform. The project describes itself as a technology ecosystem for the new internet. It includes fintech, decentralized finance, and the Internet of Things.

“By distributing Maiar DEX ownership to the next billion users, we lay the foundation for a truly global financial system that is accessible to everyone, everywhere,” said Beniamin Mincu, Elrond Network CEO.

 

What Makes Elrond Blockchain Different?

The Elrond blockchain uses Adaptive Stake Sharding to achieve incredible throughput features a robust consensus mechanism called Secured Proof of Stake and is smart contract compatible thanks to Arwen Virtual Machine.

In layman's terms, sharding involves breaking up a blockchain into multiple pieces called shards. This increases transaction speed because you can divide the transactions between different clusters of validator nodes running shards on the blockchain and process them in parallel. This is in contrast to regular blockchains, which require all the validators or miners to process one transaction at a time.

Sharding in the Elrond network was designed from the ground up to address the complexity of combining network sharding, transaction sharding, and state sharding. Elrond’s adaptive stake sharding takes this idea to the next level by dividing transactions, validators, and even the record of transactions between shards. The result is a cohesive protocol design, which not only achieves full sharding but attains the following goals as well:

  1. Scalability without affecting availability requires increasing or decreasing the number of shards to only affect a negligibly small vicinity of nodes without causing downtimes or minimizing them while updating states.
  2. Fast dispatching and instant traceability require that computing the destination shard of a transaction must be deterministic and trivial to calculate, eliminating the need for communication rounds.
  3. Efficiency and adaptability require that the shards should be as balanced as possible at any given time.

A trivial step-by-step example of how it works is depicted in the animation below:


Image Source: Elrond Network

 

Secure Proof of Stake (SPoS) ensures that no single shard is corrupted by randomly selecting a set of 61 validators from each shard and choosing one to produce a block based on its stake and reputation. This unique setup makes it possible for Elrond to process over 5,000 transactions per second per shard.


Image Source: Elrond Network

 

The best part is that the Arwen Virtual Machine gives smart contract transactions about the same speed, which is quite rare. More importantly, the Arwen VM can operate between shards, a development hurdle many other sharded blockchains are struggling to overcome.

Elrond is a complete redesign of blockchain architecture to achieve global scalability and near-instant transaction speed. The underlying technology beyond the current state-of-the-art concept is better explained in the video below by our mate Guy from Coin Bureau. 

 

Wrapping It All Up

Elrond is a next-level project, and it managed to combine the best features of many leading cryptocurrencies in the space and even improve them. Elrond's adaptive state sharding is like the sharding Ethereum is working on in its 2.0 version, but better. Elrond’s secured Proof of Stake is like Harmony’s Effective Proof of Stake (EPoS) but better. Elrond’s Arwen Virtual Machine is like Cosmos’s Cosm Wasm Virtual Machine, but better. 

When you combine these three features, you get a blockchain that is theoretically capable of handling more transactions per second than every other smart contract Blockchain combined. Elrond’s development has been exponential since its main net launched last year, and the growth is well deserved with much more on the horizon.

Furthermore, with its highly regarded team, Elrond started out with very few proclamations but a lot of activity and consistent growth over time. Contrary to what often happens today, where the launch of new projects is preceded by too much spam, sensational announcements on social networks, millionaire ICOs to raise substantial funds before any commencement of technical work on the project. 

Conversely, Elrond’s development started out quietly and self-assuredly, without asking anyone for money, at least initially, and then managed to gain investors’ trust with a whole series of steps and transformations that have evolved over the recent years.  

I believe we will be hearing a lot more about Elrond in the future as momentum builds and the need for this unparalleled technology becomes paramount to enable universal access and transcend the global economy. Elrond will be the wave that will lift all boats, taking this massive opportunity from a niche group of people and extending it to everyone in the world. Elrond is set to open the flood gates to create a new market.

Disclaimer:  This content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when deciding to invest.

 

 

 

THE RAT TRAP from Diana Larkin

November 26, 2021, 9:20 AM

THE RAT TRAP
"I have set up an elaborate, worldwide RAT TRAP and in the coming months, you will see many rats all over the world CAUGHT in this well-laid TRAP. Those rats were all given opportunities to repent and to come into the LIGHT, but they chose to remain partnered with DARKNESS and now the darkness will be their PORTION, as they face JUDGMENT, JUSTICE, and some DEATH.

Weep that they have chosen to remain in darkness and to live outside My LOVE and LIGHT, but do not give them UNSANCTIFED MERCY—that is giving mercy where I AM bringing judgment. Even in My judgment, as they suffer the consequences of their choices, there will yet be an opportunity to repent and come to Me for forgiveness. It would be a GREAT VICTORY against the darkness if those heavily partnered with it became BORN-AGAIN and came into the Light. They will still receive judgment and justice for their RAT-LIKE behaviour, but My GRACE and COMFORT will see them through and light will TRIUMPH over the darkness in their lives.

I AM declaring to you that My RAT TRAPS are set and that JUSTICE is coming."

This is the prophetic word from:

Diana Larkin
@JournalDiana11

The Future Is Here And It Will Be Filled With Endless Looting Rioting And Civil Unrest

November 21, 2021 by Michael Snyder

The Future Is Here, And It Will Be Filled With Endless Looting, Rioting And Civil Unrest

Our civilization is crumbling right in front of our eyes.  We have become accustomed to soaring murder rates, mass shootings, extreme degeneracy throughout the entire entertainment industry, violent rioting in our streets and severe corruption on all levels of government.  To a certain extent, a lot of these things seem “normal” to many of us at this point.  But the truth is that what we are experiencing is not even close to “normal”.  We are literally watching our entire society slowly but surely go down the tubes, and it is heartbreaking to watch.

If you think that I am being overly dramatic, just consider what happened in northern California on Saturday night.  A mob of more than 80 thieves wearing ski masks and armed with crowbars suddenly descended upon a Nordstrom store, and they ransacked the entire place in just minutes

More than 80 people stormed and robbed a Nordstrom in California on Saturday night, according to a police report from the Walnut Creek Police Department.

The robbery was over within minutes as thieves armed with crowbars and wearing ski masks streamed out of the Nordstrom into the dozens of cars lining the block.

Needless to say, Nordstrom workers were caught entirely off guard, and several individuals received injuries during the melee…

During the theft, two Nordstrom workers were punched and kicked, while another was sprayed with pepper spray. All three individuals were treated for their injuries on scene.

This sort of “organized crime” is becoming increasingly common, but the size and scale of this particular attack was particularly alarming.

 

This happened in one of the most prosperous areas of northern California, and one eyewitness described it as “like a scene out of a movie”

Brett Barrette is one of the managers of P.F. Chang’s restaurant across from the Nordstrom store. He watched as the bedlam unfolded.

“I probably saw 50-80 people in like ski masks with crowbars, a bunch of weapons,” he said. “They were looting the Nordstrom.”

“There was a mob of people,” he continued. “The police were flying in. It was like a scene out of a movie. It was insane.”

Meanwhile, the Louis Vuitton store in San Francisco was also hit by organized looters this weekend.

Many of the looters got away, but police were able to nail a few of them.

Even though this sort of thing is taking place so frequently now, I am still shocked whenever I see these sorts of videos.  For even more examples, please see my recent article entitled “In Some Parts Of America, Looting Has Become A Way Of Life”.

Over in Portland, approximately 150 rioters started fires and smashed things up following the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.  At one point, about a dozen police officers were forced back into a garage by an extremely unruly mob

Video captured the moment protesters in Portland cornered police in a garage during riots over the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.

The footage shows a crowd of angry protesters aggressively yelling at the police dressed in full riot gear. The group of nearly a dozen officers are seen backing up into a garage.

The door of the garage slowly closes as the protesters continue to confront the police, with one demonstrator even trying to push open the garage door.

Way too often, the bad guys are starting to get the upper hand in situations like this.

And I think that does not bode well for the troubled times ahead.

For years, I have been warning that this sort of civil unrest would be coming in the future.

Now the future is here, and the chaos in our streets is only going to be getting even more intense.

On the other side of the globe, rioting of a completely different nature is happening.  As authoritarian measures become increasingly extreme, vast numbers of people are standing up and saying that enough is enough

Violent protests have broken out against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and lockdowns across Europe amid new tough rules to curb winter waves of the virus.

Demonstrators angry about the new measures gathered in Austria, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland, the French territory of Guadeloupe and the Netherlands to protest the moves.

In Belgium, approximately 40,000 protesters descended upon the capital, and police fired water cannons and tear gas to try to control the crowds…

Nearly 40,000 people descended on the capital Brussels to protest against new anti-Covid measures banning the unvaccinated from entering restaurants and bars.

Some protesters were seen throwing projectiles at riot police and in response, officers fired water cannon and tear gas at the group. Police have made some arrests, but it is not immediately clear how many.

Next door in the Netherlands, the violence was even worse.  At one point, police officers actually opened fire on one group of “rampaging rioters”

Dutch police have arrested more than 30 people during unrest in The Hague and other towns in the Netherlands that followed an “ orgy of violence ” the previous night at a protest against coronavirus restrictions.

The violence by groups of youths in The Hague and elsewhere Saturday night wasn’t as serious as Friday night in Rotterdam, where police opened fire on rampaging rioters and arrested 51 people.

By imposing such harsh authoritarian measures during this pandemic, governments in Europe and elsewhere are losing their legitimacy.

And responding to protests with such violence will also result in a loss of legitimacy.

Part of living in a civilized society is being able to trust the government to do the right thing most of the time.

But now we have gotten to a point where large numbers of people in industrialized nations all over the globe do not trust their own governments.

And once that trust erodes far enough, it may get to a point where entire nations become virtually ungovernable by anyone.

Like I said at this beginning of this article, we are watching civilization crumble all around us, and that should make all of us very sad.

We are rapidly plummeting into an abyss of anarchy, madness and chaos, and the days ahead are not going to be pleasant.

TREASURES FROM THE FATHER’S HEART

November 24, 2021, 9:40 AM

An unusual dream "PLANNING A GET-AWAY" (where I am one of the 'bad guys)
A Word from the Father "AMBUSH THE ENEMY'S AMBUSH"

DREAM: I was dreaming about the Craft Upholstery Shop that morphed into us planning to steal money from the bank and get away with it. The Thief was an old, white-haired, bumbling man (who looked just like JB). The money is stolen, and we are taking a long time discussing various get-away plans,we can't agree on one, and we take so long that the Thief's handlers come back, and I have to let them in or they'll be even more suspicious. We're acting all innocent but still trying hard to think how to get away with the treasure.

INTERPRETATION: Craft Upholstery=someone who changes things by craft or by being crafty Stolen money=something of great value taken from the rightful owner (such as a high position) Bumbling Thief=JB

Weaknesses exposed to us: indecision has robbed them of the advantage and made their plans vulnerable to discovery (their goal was to get the bumbling Thief out of there and take over this "treasure"=the highest seat in the Land. The other camp has become suspicious and they're back to stake their claim to the Thief and the "treasure."

The Father shares how to RESPOND to this inside intelligence given in a dream: AMBUSH THE ENEMY'S AMBUSH "

I gave you a dream last night that REVEALED what is taking place in the enemy's camp. I showed you this revelation so that you know how to DEFEAT the schemes of the darkness with your prayers and decrees. I exposed a weak area of DISUNITY and how there are now divided camps in those partnered with darkness. They each want the 'TREASURE' and both camps have used the Thief to try and get it. But they are now hiding plans from each other and trying to act innocent. Indecision in the one camp has cost them an ADVANTAGE. These are important INTELLIGENCE points for you to know. Your prayers and decrees can sow more CONFUSION and INDECISION in the one camp. You can decree SUSPICION would darken the other camp's perceptions. By the power of the blood of Jesus, PULL DOWN their plans to steal the 'treasure and declare EXPOSURE of all their corrupt schemes and plans. Together we will watch darkness IMPLODĘ and the Light WIN as you AMBUSH THE ENEMY'S AMBUSH."

A vision from Diana Larkin

I love to hear the Father’s voice & share His encouragement with others.Lover of God, my husband and family, beauty and my Nation. Value freedom and integrity.

Communities are Suffering the Effects of Terminating Unvaccinated Employees And things will get Much Worse very soon

Communities are Suffering the Effects of Terminating Unvaccinated Employees! And things will get Much Worse very soon!!!

Commentary By:  Gordon King

Most of us should be smart enough to know that if millions of people refuse to be injected with a poisonous Covid-19 “so-called” vaccine are terminated from their employment then there will be major staffing shortages.  It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out, just common sense, however, that seems to be lacking these days!

It has just been reported that an emergency department in Long Beach New York has just closed its doors (for at least a month they say) due to not having enough nurses because they were terminated for not taking the jab.

Mt. Sinai’s Long Beach Site to Temporarily Close Due to Vax-Related Staff Shortages

I believe that this is only the tip of the iceberg, as there are many, many other businesses that are also lacking adequate support staff, such as doctors, nurses, and nursing aides, and they are right behind this emergency department in New York.  I know for a fact that this is true as a Skilled Nursing Facility that I work for on-call is very limited on admitting new patients because they just don’t have enough nursing aides and can’t seem to find any!  This isn’t an isolated incident, it’s happening all over America, and I suspect across the globe.

We are going to see shortages of employees in hospitals, emergency departments, nursing homes, etc., and in fact its already happening.  We are going to see shortages of employees in many aspects of our lives and society due to forced vaccine mandates, it’s not only isolated to healthcare my friends, and things could get much worse very quickly!

Joe Biden just announced that he will be mandating forced vaccinations for those crossing state lines.

US to require vaccines for all border crossers in January

President Joe Biden will require essential, nonresident travelers crossing U.S. land borders, such as truck drivers, government and emergency response officials, to be fully vaccinated beginning on Jan. 22, the administration planned to announce.

So as of January 22, 2022, truck drivers will be required to take the poisonous jab or lose their job!  Hmmm…I wonder what that will do to our economy?!  We already have a supply chain issue, a shortage of goods across the board, how will terminating truck drivers do anyone any good?  Just about everything that we need or use for our survival depends upon truck drivers, and now Biden wants to add fuel to the fire of what has already been deemed as a national crisis!

On another note, Joe Biden has all but stopped the production of fossil fuels in America and plans to rely on what for our energy needs?  At the same time, he goes crying to other nations in order to purchase more fossil fuels, how does this make any sense?!  And believe it or not Joe Biden is at the same time selling oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Asia!!!

Alert — Biden is selling our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Asia…

I was under the impression that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was to be used for emergencies?  But apparently Joe Biden has other things in mind, and I wonder just what Asian country is getting our oil?  Could it be China?  Nothing to see here folks, just keep on moving!

This is what our leaders in America are doing, destroying jobs, destroying the supply chain, destroying our energy independence, destroying our military, destroying America, destroying lives!  All of these things will affect each and every one of us, no one is exempt, except of course the Elite!

This is only the beginning of the after effects from tyrannical mandates and evil decision making, which we really haven’t seen it yet, at least not on the scale that we will in the not too far off future.  And I haven’t even spoken of the effects from printing money to the nth degree, just what that will do to the economy, or of the censoring of conservatives and Christians, of the division and chaos that this administration is imposing upon our nation.  I haven’t even spoke of how this administration is supporting anarchy, looters and rioters, and labeling hard working Americans as domestic terrorists, like parents being concerned for the welfare of their children in school, while at the same time the government and the MSM refuse to label actual domestic terrorists like Darrell Brooks who plowed down and ran over dozens of innocent victims in Waukesha, Wisconsin!

The world is quickly becoming a very dark place, when evil is called good and good is called evil, when the hearts of men grow cold, when people only listen to what tickles their ears, when lawlessness abounds!

All of these things that are happening are signs of the times, signs of the closeness of Christ’s return for His church.  Everything is accelerating very rapidly, much faster than I ever thought that they would!  

We should not put our hope or trust in this world but solely in Jesus Christ!  The world is being led by the wicked one, by Satan, and his is to steal, kill, and destroy, and that’s exactly what he is doing, and his minions are following suit, putting his sinister schemes into motion!

For many I believe that it is too late, for they have seared their conscience with a hot iron, they shall always be blinded to the truth.  But for many more there is still hope, hope that God will soften their hearts, remove the scales from their eyes, and open their ears to hear.

Pray for the lost, pray for their repentance and salvation.  Pray for the good Lord to protect what belongs to Him, pray for Him to give us His courage and strength, wisdom, guidance, and understanding!

God bless my friends!  Maranatha!

MARKETHIVE UPDATES AND INTEGRATIONS

MARKETHIVE UPDATES AND INTEGRATIONS

  • Wallet in final draft mode

  • Staking the Markethive Way

  • Staying One Step Ahead 

Markethive started out as a sophisticated inbound marketing platform with a social media interface harvesting a robust collaborative culture. The entrepreneurs of the Markethive community have been using the free system and tools, promoting their businesses, and branding themselves across the internet with much success. 

With the advent of Blockchain technologies, Markethive set its path on an unprecedented journey of combining marketing, social media, digital broadcasting, e-commerce, gamification, etc., with cryptocurrency and decentralized Blockchain, distributed ledger technology. An ongoing project of massive proportion to deliver sovereignty, financial and self, and freedom of self-expression for all equitably, without bias. 

Markethive is a Vision from the Divine Source. Its mission is to fill the vacuum for the world's entrepreneurs – To empower and enrich the lives of every individual on every level across the globe. And the timing couldn’t be more perfect as we witness the soul-less destruction, tyranny, and surveillance of humanity gift wrapped and delivered to us as protection and for our own good. 

We are building an ecosystem, and there’s an absolute need and use for our coin (HVC) for everything we do; therefore, the potential for the open market to accept and embrace HiveCoin is very promising. Binance has done similar to what Markethive is doing. You can read about its rise to success as an ecosystem in this article.   https://markethive.com/group/marketingdept/blog/theriseofbinanceakintothemarkethivejourney

 

Wallet In Final Draft Mode

The Markethive web wallet is in the final draft mode and has various functionalities. It’s currently being built on Ethereum and is a mechanism that has been developed from scratch to service the needs of the community. This is Markethive’s internal wallet, with the end goal of a wallet app accessible from your smartphone (external wallet) that includes built-in messaging, news feeds, e-commerce, and security measures. 

Notably, active Entrepreneur One members will be the first phase of receiving the initial internal wallet upon release. It’s also important to note that the Entrepreneur One membership will no longer be available when the wallet launches. 

If you're considering taking advantage of all the benefits of the E1 upgrade for $100 monthly, which includes 1/10 of an ILP per year, go to the Membership Upgrade tab on your home page. Time is running out for this offer. Entrepreneur One Upgrade Explained.
 
Click here to learn more about the ILP (Incentivized Loan Program)

 

The Vault Has A New Home

Apart from documenting your reports, history, balances, and transfers of HVC, ETH, and other top altcoins, the Markethive wallet will display a live chart tracking the progress of the HVC value in real-time. Your HiveCoin balance total is shown, including the HVC you have staked, which means what you have deposited into the Vault and rewards you with additional HVC also displayed, thereby increasing your portfolio. 

The wallet also houses the Vault, which displays your Markethive Credits, subscriptions, and statements. The Vault, already in operation within the Markethive back office, is where you currently purchase Markethive Credits to pay for your subscriptions and various services; however, all the functions of the Vault are being upgraded and are accessible in the wallet, so it’s fundamentally a comprehensive economic center for the Hive.

The image below is a mock-up of the internal wallet to get an idea of what’s coming. 

 

What Are Markethive Credits?

A Markethive Credit is similar to a stable coin and is what generates all of the activity. One Markethive Credit = $1usd. These credits can be purchased through the Vault section of the wallet via Bitcoin, Ethereum, credit/debit card, or Paypal.  

You can pay for anything through the Vault such as the Banner Advertising Impressions, the Boost, Press Releases, and Sponsored Articles, gaming activities, and more as these services are implemented and introduced into the Markethive system.
Your Vault credit can be used to buy ILPs and future upgrades that will unlock extra services and incentives. These will follow once the wallet is launched. 

 

Better Than A Bank Account

Utilizing the Vault by having an ongoing threshold balance of Markethive Credits can be very lucrative. In other words, keeping a certain amount in the Vault above your monthly commitments (subscriptions) that are debited will award you compound interest paid in HVC of up to 5% and deposited directly into your CoinClip or Wallet. 

 

How Is the Interest Calculated?

Markethive releases coins into the market, in contrast to mining, via Airdrops, Bounties, Faucets, or Micropayments. Keeping a designated threshold of Markethive credits in the Vault is a form of staking. Staking generates interest, meaning you are paid additional HVC based on how many coins you hold and your other activities in Markethive.

Your Hive Rank score adds to your daily interest and can be a significant multiplier. Your CoinClip Score is determined by the spread of earned and current balance of HVC. Essentially, if you send coins out of the system, you lower your score for staking. If you bring coins into the system, you increase your score. 

ILPs count as coins, so buying ILPs can significantly increase your staking rewards. Upgrading your membership adds to your staking interest, and logging in every day is rewarded with an additional interest increase.

Transferring any chosen amount of HiveCoin, HVC, from your wallet into the Vault for a set time period (e.g., 30 days) will earn interest also. Essentially, you are staking those delegated coins, and the higher the balance of staked coins, the more interest earned. You can choose to keep it in the vault and accumulate or transfer it to your wallet for transactional purposes. 

 


Image source: Fool.com What Is Crypto Staking

What Is Staking In The World Of Crypto? 

Staking is a way to put your crypto to work and earn rewards on it. Staking in general crypto terms is how many of the cryptocurrency blockchain projects verify their transactions, allowing participants to earn rewards on their holdings. 

Staking simply stands for holding a delegated amount of cryptocurrency in your wallet for a fixed period and is integral to the Proof of Stake protocol and a way of supporting the blockchain of a cryptocurrency in which you’ve invested.

Staking is available with cryptocurrencies that use the proof-of-stake model to process payments. This is a more energy-efficient alternative to the proof-of-work model, which requires mining devices that use computing power to solve mathematical equations.

 

Staking – The Markethive Way

In the case of the Markethive, the Vault section of your wallet is where you can stake the coins you hold and is an easy and passive way to earn income. The rewards and interest that one gains from staking vary depending on the length of the time, the amount of HVC staked, and Hive Ranking. 

Because Markethive includes the Markethive Credit threshold balance in its staking protocol, it would be advantageous for you to keep it above the threshold along with an increasing Hive Rank enabling you to earn the maximum amount of interest. The Vault will notify you if you go below the threshold. 

By buying or earning HiveCoin and banking it in the Vault, you are essentially burning the coin, and it is a good thing, as explained in this article on how Markethive creates coin velocity. There are many ways to burn crypto coins which is advantageous to the wealth and health of the currency. 

In this instance, to burn the HiveCoin means pulling the coin out of the marketplace and staking or holding it in the Vault, so there’s less supply. The less supply, the greater the demand, which in turn increases the price of the coin. 

So there are three types of currency in Markethive. The HiveCoin, (HVC), the ILP Tokens, and the Markethive Credits. And remember that the Markethive Credits are always equivalent to $1usd of which you buy products and services. Keep in mind the more you use the vault, the higher the interest rate. The more you use the system, the higher the interest rate. 

The four facets scored for stake interest are Hive Rank, Coin Clip score, Loyalty Level, and Attendance Bonus as illustrated in the schematic below. Also, total interest is paid on both your vault balance and coin clip, or wallet balance, and the interest on this combined total is paid at the end of each month. 


 
CEO of Markethive, Thomas Prendergast, reported in a recent email to all in the Markethive community, 

“The wallet is in its final draft and design. How long this can take is still to be determined, but we already have a working wallet. When the interface is completed, then we will announce the wallet to be released. I don’t easily get excited, but this has me rather anxious as this is a major milestone of the many milestones we have reached.”

 

Meanwhile, Two New Systems Implemented 

Two other vital upgrades were accomplished this week: 

  1. New registration and login system. 
  2. Markethive support ticket portal. 

Markethive’s registration and login system is now owned and operated by Markethive. This is important as we now do not have to rely or depend upon 3rd parties such as Oneall Login API Services. 

You choose which email networks you would like to log in with, and the ability to log in with your domain email will be integrated. When logging in with the new system for the first time, enter your email or username. The system will recognize you have an account and send an email with a link to log in initially.

Once logged in, go to Login Networks in your settings and add the other networks displayed. There will be more added as we move forward. 

The social networks you have linked to your Markethive account are now for remote broadcasting only with the added advantage of the bounty program that is in the works. This means you will be rewarded for registering all your separate accounts through the Markethive platform and by subscribing and following the many Markethive social media accounts will qualify you for the Infinity Bounty Program

Markethive Ticket Support is now active. This system enhances personalization, keeps records and information on all tickets you generate. You can upload documents and prioritize your queries, streamlining the support process. 

Ticket support can be found at the far right on the blue bar on the Home page. Fine-tuning to this system is still required, so your feedback when using the ticket support will be much appreciated. 

Now, our Telegram Support Channel can become a support for the Markethive community. It will be a place where people can ask questions or seek assistance from other Markethive associates about anything they may need help with—Eg., uploading a video, etc. 

These two new implementations make Markethive a more independent force, galvanizing its armor protecting its community from the oligarchs’ control and oppressive antics where many have fallen victim. Markethive – A sanctuary from the world chaos and storm that is brewing with intensity. 

Come to our Sunday meetings at 10 am MST as we approach massive major upgrades and be the first to know about it. See and hear explanations, ask questions, and witness the ever-evolving technology and concepts of Markethive as we stay one step ahead of tyrannical technocrats.  The link to the meeting room is located in the Markethive Calendar. See ya there.

 

 

The Cult Psychology Behind MLMs

The Cult Psychology Behind MLMs

The tactics they use to bait and trap enthusiastic young mothers and hopeful freelancers…

A (MLM) friend I had not heard from in years, pop uped in my LinkedIn last week all chipper and cheery "Been Forver, How ya Bee, World has gone crazy". I reponded I was fine, still working on Markethive, asked her how the husband was. "She resonded with a new pitch into her latest deal. 

I knew it was coming, seems there is just a ceratin type person that does MLM, and I have come to the conclusion MLM attracts sociopaths and operates like a cult dragging people behind them for years (think Onpassive)


Since they were developed in the 1950’s, multi-level marketing schemes have been a controversial, hot-button topic. Anybody with a Facebook or Instagram account has probably felt the effects of MLMs — whether you’ve been pitched a product yourself or watched someone else fall down the rabbit hole.

What exactly is an MLM and how do they work?

MLMs, or multi-level marketing schemes, are businesses — and I use that term loosely — that sell their products through distributors rather than retail or online stores. Popular examples include Mary Kay Cosmetics, Herbalife, Amway, LulaRoe, doTERRA, Scentsy, and Avon — just to name a few.

In most cases, no special training or sales experience is needed to become a distributor. As long as you can pay the initial “investment” fee, MLMs are more than willing to have you.

The real trouble begins once you become a distributor. Not only do you usually have to pay an initial fee to join, but you’ve also got to buy a “starter kit” of products to sell. Depending on the MLM you join, this can run you anywhere from $50 to $5,000.

The idea, of course, is that once you sell all the inventory you’ve bought from the company, you’ll end up making more than you originally spent. Unfortunately, even if you are able to sell all your inventory (which is a challenge unto itself), you still only make a percentage of what you sell — the MLM gets a cut and every distributor in your “upline” does too. Uplines and downlines work like this: you get recruited by somebody who was recruited by somebody who was recruited by somebody — and this goes all the way to the top. Most of the time, distributors don’t make any money by selling products, but by recruiting someone else to join the MLM. The more people you have in your downline, the more potential (and passive) income you get.

There is one major problem with MLMs: you don’t actually make any money. A website, MagnifyMoney.com, surveyed 1,049 multi-level marketing scheme participants — from a variety of MLMs — and found that most people were making less than 70 cents an hour (before deducting business costs) and 60% of participants said they had made less than $500 in the past five years.

For about $100 of annual profit, the fact that anybody would stay in an MLM for five minutes let alone five years seems ridiculous.

To understand how MLMs are able to drag their profitless participants along for years, we need to examine MLMs — not as businesses — but as cults. Multi-level marketing schemes might not be religious organizations, but they’re certainly forcing their participants to drink the kool-aid.

Rick Ross, the Executive Director of the Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups, and Movements, highlighted several cult warning signs to watch out for. When applied to MLMs, many of these warning signs ring true.

1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability

In some ways, multi-level marketing schemes are a brilliant business model — but only for the people at the top of the company. Whenever someone enters an MLM, they buy a “starter kit” — which could potentially be hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of inventory. The person who bought the starter kit thinks they’re making an investment, but the company is just making a sale.

It doesn’t really matter what the distributor does with that inventory once they have it — what matters is that the company has already made money, and any commission the distributor makes from that inventory is just icing on the cake.

The problem this system creates is a lack of accountability on the MLM’s side. People enter into MLMs with the mindset that they’re going to get rich — or, at the least, make a decent amount of side-income. As long as they think there’s a pile of cash at the end of the rainbow, people will go into debt while trying to make money in an MLM.

Not only is this financially and emotionally stressful for the people inside MLMs, but it also places a strain on their loved ones too.

In an online complaint board, one woman, dubbed Valerie, detailed the horrifying experience she faced when her husband became an Amway distributor:

When I realized my husband would never be able to bring himself to do the things they asked in order to “build the business”, I asked, and then begged that he stop spending the money on books and tapes, seminars and major rallies.

He just kept going on with it, and the longer it went the more I realized that the primary reason we could not get any real help from our upline was that they were already making plenty of money from us off of their share of the tapes, books, seminars, and rallies. — Valerie, complaintsboard.com

Amway, like any other MLM, does not care about their distributors. Distributors don’t care about other distributors. People, like Valerie and her husband, go broke or fall into debt while chasing the unrealistic success dangled by MLMs. Ultimately, this doesn’t affect an MLM — not when they have hundreds or thousands of other participants that will keep throwing their money into the company.

When asked about the psychological or financial hardship that some participants face, one multi-level marketing scheme, Lula Roe, responded:

“Retail is not for everyone. Retailers own their own business and make their own decisions…The success of any business depends on its leader’s own respective and independent business goals, and the strategies they employ to achieve those goals.”

While there may be some truth in this statement, Lula Roe’s lack of accountability for their employees is almost disturbing.

When these MLMs hold all the cards but refuse to take responsibility for any damage their business model causes, it creates a dangerous psychological and financial situation for their distributors.

2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry

Sooner or later, the participants, or their concerned loved ones, begin to question the authority of the MLM. They begin to realize that they’re spending money, not making it — and they want to know why.

When Valerie questioned the other distributors of Amway, her criticisms were ignored, and they continued to manipulate her husband:

Finally I asked our oh-so-caring sponsors to talk to him and get him to drop the business since he was obviously not going to work it. Instead, they encouraged him to continue having contact with them behind my back, he got a credit card that I did not know about and put $6,000 on it while pulling the bills out of the mail so that I never saw them.

This was because I was working a second job to try and pay off the other two credit cards, 80+% of which were charged up with Amway crap. I was giving him $400 a month that he was supposed to be directly applying to charge cards. Instead, he was making the minimum payments and spending the cash on more motivational crap. They told him he was doing the right thing because once he became successful it would all be made up to me, in spades. — Valerie, complaintsboard.com

Most companies, when facing backlash from their employees, would try to address the claims. MLMs, however, teach their employees to shame anybody who says a bad word about the company.

Douglas M. Brooks, an attorney who represents victims of pyramid schemes, describes what happens when a distributor questions the MLM’s authority:

…you’re trained to avoid people who question whether this is a viable business or not. Which is exactly the same technique that cults use — they try to isolate you from people who question your belief system. I’ve been contacted by a number of people who deal with cult survivors, and some of their clients are former MLM people. — Douglas Brooks, qz.com, “MLMs like Avon and LulaRoe are sending people into debt and psychological crisis”

Not only do MLMs take no accountability for their actions, but they’ve designed their system in a way that blames the distributors for any loss they experience, and shames them for asking questions.

3. No meaningful financial disclosure

Some of the top MLMs take in millions of dollars. Lula Roe, for instance, went from zero to $2 billion in less than ten years. That would be incredible — except that most of that money is coming from their distributors, not actual customers.

Becoming a Lula Roe retailer is not cheap. Buying a startup kit from Lula Roe starts at $4,900 and that’s not including any other business costs — like inventory storage, business cards or extra hangers. Some entrepreneurial websites estimate that it takes up to $15,000 of investment into Lula Roe before you begin to see a profit.

The point is, even though Lula Roe and other MLMs disclose the amount of money they pull in, they don’t necessarily point out that this money isn’t from selling products, but from recruiting distributors. They fool participants into thinking they’re “starting their own business”, but the distributor is actually the customer.

4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world

Okay, so MLMs aren’t locking people up in bunkers and telling them the world is ended. However, they are, in their own way, promoting fear about the world outside of MLMs and isolating their distributors.

The target audience for MLMs is usually mothers. Stay-at-home moms looking to generate a little side-income are drawn by the possibility of getting rich while working flexible hours. They’re also often attracted to the sense of belonging and community that an MLM provides.

If all of your closest friends sell doTERRA essential oils (and constantly boast about their success), you’d probably want to sell essential oils too — if only to fit in.

Unfortunately, once someone is in an MLM, they may begin to realize just how hard it is to sell products or recruit others. Since you’re not able to own a store or even sell a unique product, your customer base is limited to family, friends, and people you meet on the street. MLMs encourage their members to sell this way, too — sometimes by providing scripted Facebook or Instagram posts.

When you’re trying to pitch a product to everyone you know, people get upset. Even if they don’t chew you out for it, they’ll probably stop hanging out with you. This is an understandable reaction, but it also forces participants to fall back on their “MLM family” for support — leading them further into the world of MLM until that’s all they know.

When these participants do want to leave their MLM, they find it’s a lot more difficult than just quitting a job — their MLM has become their family and closest confidants.

5. There is no legitimate reason to leave

Despite losing hundreds or thousands of dollars, distributors struggle to “get out” for two main reasons:

  • The promise of potential wealth. Oftentimes, MLMs will advertise special prizes or rewards for their retailers, while also toting their top 1% of successful distributors for all to see. Who wouldn’t be enticed by the possibility of a new car or thousands of dollars? Especially when all you need to do is just stick it out just a little bit longer, invest a little more money, work a little harder…
  • As mentioned before, participants have been isolated from their peers, and have often become ingrained in their MLM “community”. Not only would the other members shame them for leaving, but they’d be losing their friends too.

Carolyn, a former director for Mary Kay, shared about her experience of leaving Mary Kay in an article on PinkTruth:

I was heartbroken to walk away. I loved Mary Kay and all I thought it had done for my family. All of my Mary Kay friends started to cut ties with me. I learned through the grapevine that “I made myself look like a failure when I returned my inventory”. Nothing I had done in 10 years of commitment, growth, overcoming obstacles, dedication to the people in my unit, dedication to Mary Kay’s dream … nothing meant anything to the people who were supposed to be my friends after I quit. — Carolyn, Pinktruth.com, “Mary Kay is Set Up So You Can’t Succeed”

For these reasons, many participants stay in MLMs far too long — maybe long enough to rack up debt.

6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse

Those who manage to make it out of MLMs rarely have good things to say. The internet is full of former MLM members warning others about the deception of these companies.

One former retailer for Mary Kay, dubbed as ‘Sad in Pink’, wrote about the lies she was fed by Mary Kay:

MLM is without risk. In MK, we are told that the company will buy back your inventory at 90% of your cost.

TRUTH: The company finds many ways to reduce the amount you get back by taking out the cost of awards, prizes, car expenses (if unpaid), chargebacks if any of your team members leave before they mail your check. They don’t refund any of your out-of-pocket costs for training, supplies, postage, gas, etc. and those add up fast. Plus, you face debt if you came in with a big inventory and cannot move it. I personally have several friends who moved up to directorship and are now in DEEP debt. They were not lazy and they made every effort to move up. But it does not work! — ‘Sad in Pink’, Pinktruth.com, “The Truth About the Mary Kay Lies”

Often, it’s only when someone leaves an MLM that they begin to realize just how much they were being influenced or deceived — much like an actual cult.

7. Followers feel they can never be “good enough”

Besides financial devastation, MLMs also dabble in psychological abuse (if you haven’t already picked up on that). It’s obvious that most participants don’t make money — yet MLMs only advertise the success of rare distributors who do profit.

This tactic makes most retailers feel like failures — surely if they could just work hard enough, they’d get rich, right? That’s the attitude that MLMs, and other distributors, try to promote.

As time goes on and participants only lose money, their self-esteem diminishes and they feel at fault for their failures. Anytime they attempt to blame the MLM’s system, the blame is only shifted back to them by other distributors who are unwilling to accept criticism about the company. This, coupled with financial devastation and conflict with loved ones, makes for a nasty cocktail of psychological crisis.

Multi-level marketing schemes may try and masquerade as legitimate, profitable organizations, but their business practices resemble cults more than actual companies.

This article curated from https://pricelindy.medium.com/the-cult-psychology-behind-mlms-f9426e8601e7

Written by Lindy Lindy


Can you think of any MLMs that abused you before you finally quit?

 

This week my brother David passed away He was 72 and the second child of four in the Prendergast family

A few days ago I experienced the death of my older brother. I honor him for being my brother, and being a marine. His life was hard and his childhood was even greater in difficulty than mine. We are both overcomers. I loved him and will miss him. Farewell David, perhaps we can reconoiter in paradise.

And once again, a lot of false statements have been made about what happens when you die. The only place to find the truth about death is in the Word of God. In order to fully understand what happens when you die, you must first fully understand how life begins.

God said in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee…” How is this possible. It is possible because in the beginning, God created all things. All things were in Him and they became visible at the time of His designated good pleasure. Before God said, “Let there be light,” all of us were in Him. We were all in God as spirits.

The question then becomes, how did we get here on earth? We all came from Adam and Adam came to earth as a result of Genesis 2:7. Genesis 2:7 says, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breathe of life; and man became a living soul.” In other words the first man was formed with a body from the dust of the ground. Then God blew into that body a breath of life, which is the same as “spirit.” God blew into the nostrils of the body that He formed for Adam, the spirit of Adam, which came out of God. Since Adam, God now forms the body of all of us in our mothers womb and He breathes into the mothers womb, our individual spirits which comes out of Him. When the spirit, (breath of life) enters into the formed body, that person becomes a living soul.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 says tells us what happens when a person dies. It says, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.” In other words, when a person dies, his or her spirit goes back to God, the body returns to dust and the soul of that person no longer exist. That is why Job 27:3 says, “All the while my breathe is in me, and the spirit of God is my nostrils.”

Ecclesiastes 9:5 says, “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know not any thing.” When you die you know nothing. You are not aware of what’s going on earth and you are not looking down from heaven because the dead knows nothing. In order to be conscious of anything you must have a soul. But a soul is the combination of body and spirit. When the two no longer exist together, there is no soul and there is no consciousness of anything.

At this present time, no one is in heaven or hell. Acts 2:29 and 34 tells us that King David is both dead and buried and his grave is still with us today. But King David has not yet ascended into heaven. His body has turned to dust and his spirit is back with God and his soul no longer exist. If this is true for David, then it is also true for everybody else.

Nothing happens to the dead until Jesus returns. I Thessalonians 4:13-18 makes it perfectly clear what happens when we die. The passage begins by saying the Lord does not want us to be ignorant about what happens to the dead in Christ. The dead in Christ refers to those who have died as saved or born again Christians as a result of accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. If you as a Christian, believe Jesus died and rose from the dead, then we too will eventually rise from the dead. And that will happen when Jesus returns. I Thessalonians 4: 16-17 says, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then, we which are alive and remain, shall be caught us together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be with the Lord forever.” It is perfectly clear that we will all go to heaven at the same time. This eliminates anyone being able to say, “I got to heaven before you did.”

I should point out here that as we and the dead rise up to meet the Lord in the air, before we get to Him, our bodies will changed, in the twinkling of eye, into a new incorruptible body. Jesus then will give back to the dead, their spirits that had been placed back in God and the dead will once again become a living soul to enjoy being in the presence of the Lord for ever. This is the joy of Eternal Life.

This is how the bible wants us to comfort one another as Christians. Not with, “he/she is in a better place.” Not with, “he/she is looking down on us from heaven.” Not with, “he/she is with their loved ones in heaven.” None of this happens until Jesus returns to get us. By the way, if people go to heaven immediately after death, then why is Jesus coming back to get us?

The bible provides no answer for comfort for those who die without accepting Jesus Christ while they were alive. Revelation reveals to us that there will be a second resurrection of those who failed to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savor. Those who fail to do so will be resurrected from the dead to be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Now, more than ever, is the time to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that many will be convicted to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Jesus is soon to come, but when He comes, it will be too late to accept Him.

Please Read This > What Happens When You Die?
 

The Latest Report On CBDCs A Dystopian Nightmare

The Latest Report On CBDCs. A Dystopian Nightmare!

Cryptocurrencies’ continued adoption puts pressure on governments worldwide, and their reckless money printing has only added fuel to the fire. Now they're rushing to develop their Central Bank Digital Currencies before it's too late. In a previous article, I explained how the implementation of CBDCs could well be part of the great reset plan. Today, we’ll explore a recent report, revealing what features CBDCs will have, how governments plan on rolling them out, and what implications this could have for cryptocurrency. 

The report was composed by the Bank for International Settlements or BIS, which is fundamentally the bank for central banks. Its primary role is to facilitate coordination between central banks around the world. Over the last few years, the BIS has been devising a template for Central Bank Digital Currencies or CBDCs to be issued by their respective central banks. 

It must be stated that CBDCs are not cryptocurrencies by any standards. This is because CBDCs are centralized, permissioned, and offer very little or no privacy. They are entirely controlled by central banks and the governments to which they are accountable. Almost every Central Bank is working on a CBDC of its own, and seven of these central banks have been actively helping the BIS construct a CBDC template. 

These are the United States Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of Canada, and the Swedish Central Bank. In October 2020, these seven central banks and the BIS published the first of many reports about what and how CBDCs will look. The second CBDC report came out on September 30th, 2021, and contains even more details about what CBDCs will look like. 
It's divided into a three-part system;

  1. Design and interoperability.pdf 
  2. User needs and adoption.pdf 
  3. Financial stability implications.pdf 

The authors provided a short six-page summary.pdf of their three-part CBDC report, and there are a few interesting points in the summary, which were seemingly not mentioned in the three sections of the report. 

The very first thing worth pointing out is the most important, and that's everything you read here applies to a public or retail CBDC. Now, this is a small but insanely significant detail because central banks, governments, and select institutions will use their own so-called wholesale CBDCs. A wholesale CBDC template is also being worked on, but one blatantly obvious thing is that regular folks like us will use a completely different digital currency to the people in power.  


Source: https://voxeu.org/article/central-bank-digital-currency-concepts-and-trends

Another concerning detail quoted at the end of the first page of the report summary is, “CBDCs would be likely to have wide-ranging impacts on public policy issues beyond a central bank's traditional remit.” 

This seems to imply that CBDCs will be used to enforce public policy mandates in all other areas of our lives, not just the financial aspect. 

Adding to that, as quoted in the screenshots below, “different users and needs would need to be defined and addressed in the system’s design.” 

And also, “Central banks might consider measures to influence or control CBDC adoption or use. This could include measures such as access criteria for permitted users,” …] 

This suggests that even retail CBDCs will have different rules for different groups of people. 

 

How Will CBDCs Be Designed? 

Much of how CBDCs will be designed has to do with the current financial intermediaries’ roles in such a system. For starters, the report states, “Central banks would be the only entities entitled to issue and redeem a CBDC and would bear the ultimate responsibility for the design of the CBDC system and the operation/oversight of the core Ledger.” 

Although central banks could theoretically cut out all existing financial intermediaries, the report stresses the importance of partnering with the private sector simply because the central bank can't possibly recreate, much less maintain the same infrastructure on its own. 

Below is an image of what the financial system looks like now in most countries, 


Source: Coin Bureau

And the image below is what a CBDC-based financial system would look like, according to the report. As you can see, the exact role each party plays here is not entirely clear. Still, the report notes that “if the central bank were to play a too operational or dominant a role in the ecosystem, private intermediary participation could be curtailed with a reduction in the diversity, innovation, and efficiency of the system.”

Given that private financial intermediaries will be a part of the picture, CBDCs will need to be interoperable internationally and domestically with their existing infrastructure. But, because this will likely cause many technical issues, the report recommends limiting the number of financial intermediaries that are allowed to operate. 

Also, the report states approval processes for new intermediaries or specific services and strong oversight could help mitigate technical issues. Meaning, the central bank will decide exactly which financial intermediaries are allowed to operate. 

 

Privacy Issues

When it comes to privacy, it states total anonymity is not possible as central banks would design CBDC Systems to meet anti-money laundering and combat the financing of terrorism requirements. 

Supposedly, our data will be safe because the central bank would have no commercial interest in end-user data and may be better placed than a commercial entity to commit to a minimal use of such data. 

The report also brings up the infamous travel rule put in place by the FATF, which means that every CBDC  transaction above a certain amount would be automatically tracked. 

 

Interoperability

The next part of the report briefly touches on the interoperability requirement for CBDCs and notes that the essential foundation of interoperability would be standardization, which would allow compatibility. 

The report’s last mention of interoperability is that a CBDC could be introduced with an explicit policy goal to catalyze a migration of national standards to an internationally promoted standard.  In other words, CBDC standards will be Global.

 

What Is Their Strategy For Global Acceptance?

The BIS and central banks know that the public may have trouble understanding or accepting their new monetary system, as mentioned below, but they have a plan on helping us “ordinary people” understand. 

It starts by outrightly admitting that the main reason why central banks are developing CBDCs is because of cryptocurrency adoption, stating that, “without continued innovation and competition to drive efficiency in a jurisdictions payment system, users may adopt other less safe instruments or currencies potentially leading to economic and consumer harm.” 

Ironically the report acknowledges that “technological innovation has been transforming the markets for retail payments at pace over recent years, with many new payment methods platforms and interfaces evolving to become faster, cheaper, and safer.” 

The logical conclusion of this kind of statement would be to allow this kind of payment innovation to continue, but apparently, the BIS and its banker cohorts believe this is better done differently. 

In this section of the report.pdf, it outlines the three ways by which CBDC adoption can be achieved by;

  1. Fulfilling unmet user needs
  2. Achieving network effects
  3. Not requiring everyone to buy a new computer or phone

The report detailed how CBDCs exactly fulfill unmet user needs, and according to the BIS, the main selling points are security, low cost, high liquidity, programmability, and privacy. The report then starts to detail some more manipulative ways of achieving CBDC adoption. Namely, “incentivize consumer use of CBDC by dispersing, social benefits and transfers to individuals in CBDC” and “allowing consumers to pay their taxes in CBDC.” 

The report also provides a formula for various CBDC marketing campaigns targeting consumers with different pain points and needs. The funny thing is that one of these consumer archetypes in their category is a person “who does not want commercial banks to know his or her Identity or track his or her spending.” So naturally, the best solution to this issue is to give all that information directly to the central bank instead. 

 

What Are The Financial Stability Implications? 

The next section of the report is the financial stability implications of a CBCD and is where cryptocurrency is first acknowledged. The report notes that “stablecoins are only just starting to be developed, and will need to satisfy regulators that they are safe.” It would seem they missed the memo that stablecoins have been around for years and their users know which ones are safe and which ones are less safe. 

Then the report goes on and makes a ridiculous claim which is believed to be categorically false by the crypto savvy, “Unlike central banks, issuers of stablecoins are not bound by principles to design products that would coexist and interoperate with other forms of money or to promote ongoing innovation and efficiency.” 

In the crypto space, it’s common knowledge that stablecoins like USDT and USDC are available on more than a dozen different blockchains. It's in the BIS and central banks’ economic interest to be as interoperable as possible. Stablecoins are literally leagues ahead in interoperability terms of any CBDC. Even Visa has managed to test USDC as part of its payment infrastructure. 


Source: Techcrunch

Then, the truth is revealed when the report states, “Significant stablecoin adoption and the potential consequent fragmentation could result in excessive market power and the type of deposit disintermediation described as a risk for CBDC issuance.” 

This statement officially confirms that central banks see stablecoins as a risk to a central bank digital currency rollout. They're also hyper-aware that “the actual introduction of CBDCs could be some years away. In the interim, providers of private money and tokens are expected to continue developing and expanding their service offerings.” 

Because the central banks can't possibly catch up, they can only slow stablecoins down through regulation, and we see more news of crackdowns and reviews in recent headlines.  

Although the next part of the report is quite technical, many astute crypto enthusiasts’ interpretation is that central banks know that CBDCs can't compete with stablecoins because they can't offer the same yields on savings found in Defi. Yields are something that wealthy investors and institutional investors crave, and their influence could protect stablecoins from harsh regulations.  

The third section of the BIS report is where things get really interesting. Besides the fact that the projected adoption of CBDCs in G20 countries is between 4% and 12%, CBDCs could pose a considerable threat to the financial system via the banks. 

To understand why we must go back to when the stock market started crashing in the lead up to the Great Depression. People scrambled to withdraw all their money from their bank accounts, only to find that their banks didn't have their money because it had all been lent out. 

The bank runs caused the banking sector to collapse, which ultimately caused the Great Depression. The FDIC was created shortly afterward to ensure that banks always had enough cash on hand to ensure bank runs could never happen again. 

However, the BIS report highlights that a CBDC would be seen as a safe haven by many investors during a crisis. It is suggesting that investors would move their money out of the banking system and into the central bank. 

This would lead to a collapse of the banking system like it did a hundred years ago. Even if this collapse doesn't happen, the report admits that in a CBDC system, “a common theme is that maintaining bank profitability levels could be challenging.” 

The report gives a series of recommendations for how private banks could mitigate the loss and risk of potential collapse, and some consider them laughable, at the very least.

One aspect particularly stands out of all the report’s side effects a CBDC could have on the banking system. It states, “the introduction of a CBDC by the central bank could cause a reduction in commercial bank deposits, which would consequently translate into more expensive credit lines.”

In other words, CBDCs could make loans more expensive, which means it could become next to impossible for the average person to buy a house or other valuable assets. You could say it's almost like "you’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy."

Notably, the same run on the bank risk exists with stablecoins, and you could argue that it's already begun as the $130+ billion in the stablecoin market cap came from bank balance sheets. 

After highlighting these risks and others, such as CBDCs potentially replacing government bonds, as the primary safe-haven asset among investors, the report explains how central banks can use their omnipotence to prevent these scenarios from playing out. 

Quote, “quantity-based safeguards would restrict the use of CBDC, through imposing hard limits on the transfers and or holdings of CBDC.”  It also states, “Limits could also be applied varyingly for different CBDC account holders.” Better yet, quote, “Such limits could be imposed on a permanent basis or on a transitional basis.” 

In other words, if the economy starts crashing and everyone runs to CBDCs to protect their wealth, the central bank will prevent them from doing that to prevent the crash, with no regard for investors. 

The BIS report concludes that a material shift from bank deposits to CBDC if the holdings of CBDCs by individual users were left unconstrained, could have a non-trivial long-term impact on bank lending and intermediation. 

 

What Is The Likely Outcome?

As terrifying as this BIS report is, it reveals just how difficult it will be to roll out such a dystopian system and arguably next to impossible. This is simply because there's no way to introduce a CBDC without eating into the bottom line of the banks and financial intermediaries. They would sooner side with crypto than let that happen, and some would suggest that this could be the outcome of introducing a CBDC.

There is also no way on God’s earth that the average person would adopt a CBDC without being forced, and the moment someone starts to use force to mandate something and claim it is good, it becomes clear that it's not. This begs the question of why central banks would go through all this trouble to create what is likely to be an abysmal payment method. 

Many would argue the answer is that this isn't their actual goal, and the evidence is easily found in the design of what they're building. CBDCs are nothing short of a tool for total control, and every single stated benefit and feature only exists to entice people into this totalitarian scheme.

As the report admitted, there are already numerous financial technologies that can do everything CBDCs can and more. Most of these financial technologies have come from cryptocurrency, and it’s odd that the report didn't mention any cryptocurrencies besides stablecoins. 

It also didn't mention the word blockchain either. It may be that the BIS doesn't want to draw any more attention to cryptocurrencies. What is the likelihood of any of the governments that read the report getting the idea of adopting Bitcoin as El Salvador did? Other countries are likely to follow suit, especially since it's much easier to plug into a financial system that's been proven to be secure and reliable rather than build a new one from the ground up. 

It looks like they won't have any other choice either because fiat currencies are losing value and credibility by the minute. However, this might actually be what the central banks want though. After all, the only way they could possibly convince anyone to adopt their CBDCs is if their existing fiat currencies are worthless. Even then, the crash could happen much quicker than they anticipated, and their CBDCs are far from being ready to fill that void. 

It may sound a little crazy, but we could end up with a scenario where the only kind of money left with any value is select cryptocurrencies and China's digital yuan (e-CNY). I think we all know which one the global majority would choose.

So while politicians and bankers “fluff around,” trying to implement their new financial system, we can do our part in adopting credible cryptocurrencies and emerging projects that tower over any technology the central banks come up with, especially in the case of decentralization autonomy and privacy. Systems that will have a positive impact on “We the people” not only financially, but also socially and professionally

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

A special thank you for valuable insights and research performed by Coin Bureau

Also published on Before It’s News – https://beforeitsnews.com/economy/2021/10/the-latest-report-on-cbdcs-a-dystopian-nightmare-3044898.html