William Keep – The Direct Selling Association On Pyramid Schemes: Truth And Truthiness

The Direct Selling Association On Pyramid Schemes: Truth And Truthiness by William Keep

Summary

• Implications for investor risk of a pyramid scheme prosecution and legislators concerned with consumer protection.
• Contracting "experts" with no industry expertise invites misinformation for investors, consumers, AND industry members.
• A positive path forward relies on neither damning an entire industry nor sprinkling "industry self-regulation" pixie dust on regulators and legislators.

By Peter Vander, Ph.D. and William Keep, Ph.D.

Public statements presented as true, though without supporting logic or evidence, if repeated frequently and with enough gravitas may eventually be accepted as true. To capture this type of phenomenon, a new word has been added to our lexicon, "truthiness." Truthiness does not necessarily indicate a false statement, though a false statement authoritatively...