AARP’s acknowledged mission is to “empower folks to decide on how they stay as they age.”
For some cause a part of that mission is pushing a pyramid scheme onto its members.
AARP is a non-profit and prices $16 a 12 months for membership.
AARP membership offers entry to focused monetary, employment, neighborhood, buying, well being and insurance coverage providers.
The group has a feature-rich web site, which offers a ton of data to members and non-members alike.
Within the midst of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, retirees are amongst a number of the most susceptible members of society.
In what seems to be an effort to supply options to retirees coping at dwelling, ib April twenty fourth AARP printed an article titled “19 Jobs You Can Do With out Leaving the Home“.
The article is authored by Stacy Rapacon, a contract author in New York who claims to concentrate on private finance.
At first look Rapacon’s job solutions don’t increase any eyebrows. Some, like “mock juror”, even sound intriguing.
A reader wrote in to ask about Rapacon’s twelfth suggestion although, “Negotiator”.
Sounds harmless sufficient, and even the supplied description is fairly tame.
Who’s hiring: Path One Group
Common hourly pay: $17 to $25
In case your communication expertise are significantly persuasive, turning into a invoice negotiation advocate could possibly be proper up your alley.
By means of its Autopilot product, the tech firm Viv, a subsidiary of Path One Group, goals to assist folks decrease their month-to-month payments for cable, cellphone plans, web and different utilities.
And so they want negotiators to do the soiled work of haggling with the likes of Comcast, Verizon and different service suppliers most individuals would like to not discuss to themselves.
The corporate is searching for each full-time and part-time negotiators and states within the job itemizing that the function can earn $50,000 to $75,000 a 12 months or extra, based mostly on efficiency.
At first I assumed AARP had significantly printed an article pushing Viv, an MLM alternative.
That’s not the case although. The “negotiator” place includes calling up utilities suppliers to get a less expensive billing contract on behalf of Viv’s purchasers.
The issue is Viv in all probability operates as a pyramid scheme.
The “negotiator” service is offered by Professional Memberships, which is required to qualify for all commissions paid by Viv’s MLM alternative.
This lends itself to signing up as a Professional Member, recruiting others who do the identical and getting paid for it. In MLM, this constitutes a pyramid scheme.
Granted AARP aren’t pushing participation within the pyramid scheme itself, however wouldn’t it have harm to do some wider analysis on promoted positions?
Think about going for a negotiator place on the advice of AARP, getting the place and later being sucked into the pyramid facet of the enterprise.
For a retiree searching for work to make ends meet, that has the potential to be financially devastating.
Readers of Rapacon’s printed article additionally level out that one prompt place hyperlink throws up a “harmful internet web page” safety warning.
Out of curiosity I attempted to go to the web site and located that since Rapacon’s article was printed, your entire firm’s web site is gone.
Different readers reported issues of getting handy over private info and being certified however rejected for positions nonetheless marketed as open.
Who’s writing these articles? I needed to cease once I acquired to the half, “a plethora” of jobs can be found in know-how.
Actually? I might beg to vary.
Why would you try and make it sound like so many roles are sitting unfilled and let these which might be unemployed throughout a world pandemic ought to have the ability to ‘discover’ one.
Who writes this nonsense? To this point, not overly impressed with this new membership.
I’m not right here to inform AARP how one can run their group, however on the very least it feels like their editorial oversight coverage is in want of evaluate.