Comment Number: 522418-04487
Received: 6/27/2006 12:52:40 AM
Organization: World Wide Dream Builders
Commenter: Jerome Otto
State: WA
Subject: Business Opportunity Rule
Title: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
CFR Citation: 16 CFR Part 437
No Attachments

Comments:

While I applaud the efforts of the FTC's quest to shutdown obvious scams and pyramid schemes, I am worried that legitimate business opportunities will be swept out the door also. We are a capitalist economy and the more legislation we add, the more friction is introduced into the economy. The net result can be that we can throttle the engine of our nation (this engine being free enterprise) to the point where free enterprise's availability is limited. This limiting of free enterprise would be the death knell of our democracy in my opinion. I am affiliated with a group of men and women in an organization called World Wide Dream Builders. I have not met a finer group of people, who stand for what makes this country great, in all my years. They believe in free enterprise, country, philanthropy, industriousness, and yes even God. I would think it a great tragedy if this legislation adversely affected this organization. There are several parts of the proposed legislation that cause me great concern. First, the seven day waiting period. I believe that this removes freedom of choice from the populace. A better idea might be to require business opportunities to detail what an illegal pyramid scheme is by definition, and then compare the bullet points to the business opportunity in question. Second, requiring the release of financial records to complete strangers beggars the question why we have financial privacy laws at all. In closing, I believe that the need to tighten the rules is there, as I have reported obvious check schemes and pyramids to my state's attorney general, but I also believe that a person has the right to freedom of information (in order so that they can choose for themeselves) and privacy. Thank you. Sincerely, Jerome Otto