Posted 1:15 AM by Scoobie Davis

A Family Tradition: The Amway/Blackwater Markups
Dick DeVos, former CEO of Amway, and Erik Prince, the CEO and chairman of Blackwater USA, are brothers-in-law (also click here). Both Prince and DeVos are reactionaries with ties to the sectarian right and dominionist causes. Both are businessmen who provide goods and services with very high markups. Here is some information about Blackwater charges. Here is what Amway charges for some of its products (also here and here). The main difference is that Blackwater charges its outrageous prices to the US taxpayer while Amway charges its out-of-sight prices to its mostly Republican distributors (who are taught to blame themselves when they almost inevitably fail in this elaborate Ponzi scheme). However, what is most important is that DeVos and Prince profit from other people's misery.

Addendum: I have some other posts on Amway/Quixtar/Alticor: 1) On the blogger success against Amway's scams (check out the new addendum I added recently); 2) An update on the success against Amway/Quixtar; 3) Why Democrats are chumps for not taking on Amway; 4) I mention the Proctor & Gamble suit against some prominent Amway distributors here; 5) A short post on Amway's troubles; and 6) 2006 was not a good political year for Amway.

UPDATE I: Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army has an article about Blackwater in The Nation appropriately titled Blackwatergate."

UPDATE II: The Death of Irony. Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA): "[Erik] Prince is on his way to being an American hero just like Ollie North was."

UPDATE III: Check out my new Amway blog.