PhillyDeals: Amway chief is Constitution Center's new chair

Doug DeVos, second-generation boss of consumer-marketing giant Amway and newly elected chairman of the National Constitution Center's executive board, sits at the center's Independence Mall headquarters, with its bronzes of the Founding Fathers in lifelike poses, and tells how the message of America's founding document isn't that different from what his company has found in its rapid expansion through Asia:

"Economic freedom leads to personal freedom. If you just have economic freedom, you're missing the point," which is improving life "for people. Not money."

The rule of law - a written law accessible to all - creates "an environment where people can be rewarded for the work they do," DeVos says. "It maybe isn't perfect," though he declined to suggest what might be added or cut to improve it. "It can be made more perfect. I love that part of the premise. We believe in better."

Of all the charities in America, why the Constitution

Center? His father, billionaire Amway cofounder, Christian philanthropist, and Republican donor Richard DeVos, gave $10 million in 2003 when it opened, and told his extended family to show up when President Clinton came to the dedication. Doug showed up. He liked Philadelphia, and the history displayed around Independence Mall. He liked what he heard about the founding document: "Half the countries around the world are now like ours," with written rules. "The beauty of it: you can disagree, and still be a patriot. The Constitution gives you that right."

Amway's sales total about $9 billion a year (twice the size of Dick's Sporting Goods Inc., half the size of J.C. Penney Co. Inc.). The company's members - three million worldwide, DeVos says - market soaps and hundreds of other home products and recruit new salespeople. Detractors have called it a pyramid scheme; the company paid $55 million to settle a lawsuit by disgruntled distributors two years ago. DeVos says Amway continues expanding in the United States, and abroad, where 90 percent of its members now live, in China, Turkey, Indonesia, and other fast-growing markets.