Madeleine Albright: 'I Can't Understand Why Any Woman Would Want To Vote For Mitt Romney'

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17. Welcome to DU!

You make a good point. But there aren't millions of Richie Rich clones and Thurston Howell III clones for them to marry and have horses and mansions and all the high-priced health care that money can buy for their ailments without having to worry about bankrupting the family, and at least two Cadillacs to drive at a time.

In the same way, it's just not realistic to tell people that "all you have to do is Start A Business!!!!!" Hello? Not everybody in America is cut out to start a business. Not everybody in America is cut out to come up with an original idea or money-making plan or newly-invented better mousetrap, on which they can start and build a business. Is that really the answer? Just everybody go out and Start A Business!!! What? Sign up for Amway? Hey, that doesn't work either. That's no easy or magic quick-fix by ANY stretch of the imagination.

I know because for a few days, long ago, out of curiosity, my husband and I investigated Amway. A nice Mormon couple in that neighborhood at the time, with stars and dollar signs in their eyes and high hopes in their hearts, tried to recruit us. And they used the same well-researched and time-tested sales pitch that all the hopefuls use to try and snare more hopefuls with big dreams. All it is - is a legalized Ponzi scheme. The only people who work their way into that Promised Land of Pie-in-the-Sky are the guys who got in at the beginning and could find all kinds of people on whom they'd build their own pyramid - with them at the top. Everybody else who gets in after that - struggles to find their way to the top of ANY pyramid. My mind totally shut off to this crowd when one of their big shot "success stories" started talking about how they don't like regulations in business (Strike One), and then I heard one of our sponsors on the phone during an official organizer-sales pitch visit to our house, telling the person on the other end that she was with "new downline." Honey, we're HUMAN BEINGS here. Not some nameless, faceless, impersonal, "new downline." So I therefore spent about six or seven minutes in the rarified status of "new downline." Later on, learning that it was the dick devos people and CONservatives and knuckledraggers and fast-talkers and pie-in-the-sky'ers who make it sound SOOOOOOO easy to get rich by selling all this stuff.

And - HELLO!!!! - some people just aren't cut out for that kind of thing. Frankly, A LOT of people just aren't cut out for that kind of thing. That's neither good nor bad. That's just how it is in REALITY-LAND. Not everybody is a salesman or saleswoman. And of those who are salesmen or saleswomen, not everybody's all that great at it, or successful. Certainly not successful enough to get within miles of the kind of life and lifestyle that mitt romney enjoys. Not everybody can try selling Amway at home or Mary Kay or Arbonne or Avon or Tupperware and make a big success out of it, and build that big pyramid organization underneath them from which they can take cuts of everybody else's sales activity. Not everybody can make even a MODEST success out of it. DAMN! I saw that Mormon couple recruit an elderly black gent - a true war hero, who was actually one of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. And he got into it with both feet - with VERY little money to buy in. And they told him, as they told us and everybody else at those meetings and house parties - just give 'em this tape - of one of our big-ass successful Amway leaders - and let 'em listen. WE do the work FOR YOU! And all you have to do is write up all the orders and rake in the cash! It's EASY!

And. It. Is. NOT. Easy!!!!!!!!!!!

It broke my heart to see this old gentleman, who lives in V.A. housing in West L.A., struggling week after week to try to make those pie-in-the-sky dreams come true for himself, and hustle up his own "downline." He couldn't. There aren't that many gullible, easy marks, available for prospecting. It's Just. NOT. There. And my husband is wonderful but he's no salesman, either, so I knew it wasn't for us. I was busy trying to raise kids and juggle the rest of my career before I finally gave up on it and retired so I could focus 100% on the kids while they were still young. Fortunately, we got out REEEEEEAAAALLY early. Actually didn't even get all the way in before we ran for the hills.

We gave it a try. One of my favorite one-liners is "like they say on NPR - 'All Things Considered'!" Well, we considered it for a few days. Got just inside the door. Looked around. Turned around and got back out in a hurry.