Business: Amway's Way

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Van Andel says that although top Amway salespeople can earn more than $100,000 a year, the majority, who may be housewives, retirees or even doctors or lawyers, probably make $50 to $150 a month. Though the result is a many-layered sales organization, it differs significantly from unscrupulous pyramid sales schemes like Glenn ("Dare to Be Great") Turner's Florida-based cosmetics operation, in which participants earned money by signing up new distributors rather than by selling the company's products.

Amway has moved to diversify by buying, among other things, hotels in Grand Rapids and the Caribbean and the 950-affiliate Mutual Broadcasting System radio network. A political conservative who was sworn into his Chamber of Commerce job by his good Michigan friend Gerald Ford, Van Andel is an earnest backer of a tax reduction group, Taxpayers United Federation. He is also a supporter of a campaign to limit the number of terms for Presidents (to one), Senators (two) and Representatives (six) in order to reduce the preponderance of professional politicians, as opposed to "citizen" politicians, in Washington. In his new position, Van Andel will now have at least a foot in the door to sell such views in Washington.