Tucson Weekly: Earn Big Money Fast! (August 13

You, Too, Can Grow Stinking Rich In Your Spare Time-At Home!
By Dave "Daddy Big Bucks" Devine
TUCSON HAS ONE of the lowest median incomes of any sunbelt city--the City Council learned this disturbing factoid March 2, during a preliminary discussion on how to handle local poverty problems.
About all the Council members could do then was to vote unanimously to schedule a public forum on poverty. Unfortunately, during the last five months, they just haven't had the time to hold that meeting.
While the Council delays, the local economy is producing more burger-flipping, toilet-cleaning low-paying jobs. But at least a few daring entrepreneurs are doing something about the low wages paid in this podunk town. Look around at major Tucson intersections and you'll see signs and flyers announcing very high wages for those who want to work at home.
Currents The most eye-catching of these little emblems of hope is the one which reads:
"Home Based Free Enterprise
6 Figures/6 months*"
The fine print at the bottom: "*Individual results will vary."
When you call the listed number, you're referred to a long-distance, 13-minute taped sales pitch from an outfit called the "Global Prosperity Group." You're encouraged to enroll in the Global One program, which includes 12 audio tapes and a workbook. The message says the financial material included is information that lawyers and accountants would warn you to avoid.
Beyond Global One is the Global Two program, a four-day seminar at a tropical offshore location. Investment "experts" discuss commodities, venture capital and other financial information which, the recorded voice assures you, the ultra-wealthy have had for years. After a series of testimonials about the program, you're referred back to the original number you contacted.
Listening to this spiel makes one wonder if fugitive financier Robert Vesco is still alive.
FLYERS STAPLED TO telephone poles around town announce "WORK-AT-HOME" with promises of "Be your own boss!!! Set your own hours!!! Unlimited income!!!" This road to riches requires a self-addressed, stamped envelope--which brings not one, but two! opportunities.
The first informs you that "companies need people who will work out of their houses doing such things as assembling crafts and wood items, sewing at home for pay, data entry, taking surveys from home, etc." To find out about these companies, you can buy a book, Financial Freedom at Home, at the "special" price of $29.
The second offer invites you to become an associate with Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., a company which is "sort of an HMO for legal advice and representation." According this scheme's propaganda, "180 to 200 million middle-income Americans need access to an attorney...and Pre-Paid Legal Services has the answer."
For a one-time start up fee of $65, you can become an "associate." The potential return? According to the spiel, "Where else can you invest less than $300 and stand to make as much as $250,000 a year?"
Um, how about the lottery?
AT THE BOTTOM of the street-corner pecking order are business cards taped to light poles. They proclaim, "Work From Your Home--Earn $500 to $1,500 a mo." for part-time work and "$2,000 to $5,000 a mo." full-time.
A call to the listed number gets you a return call from another number offering you a chance to sell health and nutritional products to friends and others. In other words, a multi-level marketing scheme.
Shady investments, legal services, weight-loss products--Tucson's street corners hold a wide variety of opportunities for financial advancement. Of course, you'll never see the job of freelance writer advertised in this way. Because if it were, the sign would have to read, "Work at Home for Low Pay And Deal With Snarling, Beetle-Browed Editors."

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