Word: pyramidic
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Some Boston College students have raided their local Baybank machines, this past week, throwing more than $60,000 into a student organized, get-rich-quick pyramid scheme which has netted up to $6000 for some lucky students in a matter of days...
Massachusetts law punishes pyramid participants under laws against gambling with a $3000 fine or three years in jail...
Philip M. Heilbron, a B.C. senior who made "a little bit of money" in the pyramid schemes, said the schemes investors make profits by capitalizing on an ever-increasing participation. He said that a student starts the scheme by attracting eight investors to form at three-tier pyramid, while the student at the top collects $100 from each of those beneath him. The eight then form pyramids under themselves, he said...
...degree of microscopic control maintained at the top of that pyramid is almost beyond Western comprehension. In 1983, for example, a published summary of one Politburo meeting revealed that, among other things, the members of the Soviet Union's supreme decision-making body had considered whether to lower the price of fur collars on winter overcoats. They decided that the Council of Ministers should take swift action. A few days later, a decree cut the prices of the collars...
Alongside the government bureaucracy is the separate and parallel structure of the Communist Party, with its 17.5 million members organized to penetrate and supervise every aspect of national life. At the top of this pyramid are the Central Committee and the ruling Politburo, now headed by Gorbachev. Starting with the Central Committee secretaries who oversee the functions of the government ministries, the party structure mirrors the framework of the bureaucracy in every respect, reaching down to people's control committees, with some 10 million inspectors, who check on local management. In fact, the party apparatus extends even further...