>>I assume you put marketing, persuasion and trust in the "fraud" category.
>Not if they are reasonable.
A company called Neo-Tech, which sells a particular belief system,
advertizes itself to be the greatest money/power/romantic love discovery
since the industrial revolution. In other words, they claim to have a set
of techniques which could help anyone leave all competition in the dust.
Although, from what I gather, there's no evidence that people with these
products leave all competitors in the dust, this company still markets
their products this way. From this company's point of view, they feel
justified in the way they market, since they seem to believe that you can
extrapolate from the axiom, A is A, to gain a better understanding of the
universe which would, in a wider context lead to money/power/romantic love.
And, even if people don't get the money/power/love they desire, at least
they have a better paradigm than what they had before. So overall, this
company feels, they are a net value, (and perhaps they are) even if they
advertize one thing, and produce another thing. Does this constitute fraud?
--David R.