COBRA Extension Lets Terminated Employees Continue Raiding Office Fridge For 18 Months
MANCHESTER, NH—Saying the option offered an extra safety net to anyone faced with a job loss, administrators at Brentwell Solutions confirmed Wednesday that an extension of benefits through COBRA would allow terminated employees to continue raiding the office fridge for 18 months. 'As part of our standard severance offerings, peckish beneficiaries have a period of one and a half years during which they can still pilfer a few bites from Tupperware containers in the fridge to meet their lunchtime needs,' said HR representative Taylor Malmquist, adding that eligible individuals could also polish off somebody's half-eaten BLT and then act like they hadn't noticed the name written on it when confronted by their former coworker. 'While you're searching for your next job, you can rest easy knowing you'll be able to access the same tub of Philadelphia Cream Cheese you swiped the occasional scoop from as an employee. If you have dependents, feel free to snag them a couple seltzers from the mini fridge as well. And even after your 18 months are over, you can apply to continue going to town on the oranges and trail mix packets in the snack rack indefinitely. We usually just end up throwing them out, regardless.' Malmquist later clarified that COBRA did not allow former employees to keep using office paper towels, given how hard it was to find a roll already.
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Betsy DeVos, even long before she was confirmed as education secretary, said in a speech in the '90s, 'My family is one of the largest donors to the Republican party, and now we're going to get something in return.' So, they've used their influence to help pass the policies that they want, which largely hew to an ultra-conservative free-enterprise philosophy. That includes making the government very small, deregulating all kinds of industries, increasing privatization, and lowering taxes. They contributed money to Elon Musk's PAC this election cycle, and what DOGE is doing really closely aligns with their vision of the government. They also donate a substantial amount to the Heritage Foundation, and Project 2025 aligns closely with their views. So what we're seeing happening in the Trump administration is a big part of the ideology that powered multilevel marketing. Yes. Barb Van Andel-Gaby, who is Jay Van Andel's daughter, is the chairman of the board of the Heritage Foundation, and when she inducted Kevin Roberts — who wrote the introduction to Project 2025 — she literally said, 'He is going to increase our influence on Capitol Hill.' Project 2025 includes exactly what Betsy DeVos said about the Education Department, which is that she wanted to eliminate it. It has a whole section on independent contractors, and MLM relies on as loose independent contractor laws as possible. They want to significantly limit the FTC's ability to regulate private companies and private enterprises, which would obviously greatly benefit MLMs. I hope everyone picks up this book, because so much of what has happened in our country in the last 40 to 50 years in terms of the widening inequality gap actually comes from the ideology that multilevel marketing has spread throughout the United States — and now the world, since the majority of MLM participants are actually overseas. That ideology is one of ruthless individual pursuit of wealth, and that instead of critiquing that inequality gap, [MLM philosophy says] we can all just keep going in our own little side hustles, and we all have the chance to be our own kind of Bezos one day. MLM conventions are extremely insular events. Typically, you have to be part of an organization to attend. I did not join Mary Kay, but I ended up going to the convention, and relying on the fact that I'm a white blonde woman who can blend in with the crowd. It was a really wild experience, but it also made me feel much more sympathetic and empathetic toward the women who do it. I was moved by a lot of the stories of redemption and success, even though many of them are probably not true — I've spoken to and seen a lot of evidence of women in Mary Kay and other MLMs who've been celebrated for their sales, but end up actually having simply spent a lot of money. One woman whom I spoke to at length about her journey in Mary Kay was championed as a saleswoman, but she was just spending and spending and spending. She ultimately spent more than $75,000 on Mary Kay products over a decade. The post The Little-Known Link Between Multilevel Marketing and Project 2025 appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
