<story><title>The Siege of Herbalife (2015)</title><url>http://fortune.com/2015/09/09/the-siege-of-herbalife/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>randycupertino</author><text>Good.  I hope he is successful in taking them down.  I know too many people who&amp;#x27;ve wasted $$ falling prey to these MLM scams.&lt;p&gt;I know an emergency room physician who stopped working as an MD to sell Arbonne products (another MLM like herbalife that sells makeup and diet shakes) after getting roped into it by a nurse we worked with.  Now she is in the nurse&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;downline.&amp;quot;  Utter waste of an education.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Siege of Herbalife (2015)</title><url>http://fortune.com/2015/09/09/the-siege-of-herbalife/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Outdoorsman</author><text>Interesting article...lots of up-votes, but few weighing in... I&amp;#x27;ll give it a go...&lt;p&gt;Money is at stake for one side..a stock has been publicly shorted...&lt;p&gt;Money, and a &amp;quot;way of life&amp;quot; created, for many, by an organizational structure (MLM), is at stake for Herbalife, to include it&amp;#x27;s financial managers, distributors and customers...&lt;p&gt;I can only respond by sharing my own personal experiences with MLMs...&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve never been approached by anyone that I suspected was knowingly, or unknowingly, involved in an MLM-type business that was selling a product I couldn&amp;#x27;t live without...and in many cases the &amp;quot;peddlers&amp;quot; had obviously been coached to tout benefits that I firmly believed didn&amp;#x27;t exist, or weren&amp;#x27;t possible...&lt;p&gt;This to include lotions, juices, air purifiers, supplements, etc...you name it...&lt;p&gt;In this specific case I can say the same...I try to go with the best available evidence whenever I can...&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve never seen any evidence that a normal healthy person derives significant benefit from supplements of any kind...vitamins, herbs, juice extracts, whatever...&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m wary of &amp;quot;snake oil&amp;quot; to a fault...if you aren&amp;#x27;t well seek medical advice...buying something from a salesman is possibly one of the worst things you can do if you&amp;#x27;re concerned about your health...spend that money getting yourself checked out...&lt;p&gt;The question for me is not whether Herbalife offers any kind of a health benefit to consumers, or an economic benefit to those involved in it&amp;#x27;s distribution network...&lt;p&gt;The question to be answered is whether or not a &amp;quot;whistle-blower&amp;quot; should ethically be allowed to profit, substantially, from blowing that whistle...</text></comment>