The Pyramid Scheme

The Pyramid Scheme was around for years before the Egyptians even invented pyramids--they just didn't know what to call it. It's always plays out the same basic way: you sign up to do something, and the only way you can truly be successful at it is if you get others to sign up, and in turn they have to get more people to sign up. It's a never-ending process that usually never yields results, but it's always incredibly appealing to the naive and wide-eyed.

I've grown up knowing to avoid such things, but not everyone is as lucky. The other night I was relaxing at a Starbucks after a long, hectic day of work; I needed the soothing words of Ayn Rand and a grande Italian Roast to comfort my troubled mind. While I was sitting there, I couldn't help but overhear a conversation between a well-dressed baby-boomer and an excited, friendly twentysomething. It sounded like a job interview at first, but when the gentleman started throwing around phrases like "You can make $10,000 a year for just having the internet" and the kid started reacting with "This seems too good to be true! I can really make this money just by having a computer?!" I knew what was going on.

I was suddenly struck with a Good Samaritan dilemma: should I say something to this kid, or should I just mind my own business? Clearly, I minded my own business. I had no right to get up and intervene, especially if there was some sort of other twist to the agreement--like they were just practicing lines for a new David Mamet play, and really weren't conducting shady business deals.

The entire situation was a sharp contrast to the sort of business ethics practiced in Atlas Shrugged. Whereas idealistic characters like Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden are so committed to working hard and producing goods in order to obtain wealth, this pyramid-schemer is promoting a get-rich-quick plot which hardly ever works. A pyramid scheme rarely produces anything, and must constantly grow in order to thrive... it's a parasite in the free market.

So I sat by, finished my coffee, finished a chapter, and went home. That twentysomething was far too enthralled to turn down the schemer, that's for certain. I can only hope that when the kid got home and talked with his parents, they warned him not to quit his day job.