ITA
Although...they aren't supposed to be a business.
Some thoughts on the WTBS and money
by JeffT 17 Replies latest jw friends
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Band on the Run
I don't know. It seems complex. Also, they are advertising that they are eager to sell. The properties upstate must be ready. Of course, we will never know the true deal. I don't care about the money itself. The transparency is more important to me. If they are in it for the money then they should maximize their profit to the nth degree. The rank and file don't even have a token role in how money is spent. People at Bethel don't seem to have say, either. The individuals who actually determine this are prob. a small group.
I would not be surprised if they did not have out house consultants.
The do as you are told and shut up more runs through the religion. They could publish a rudimentary financial statement and still not reveal that much. The financial statements at my Episcopal church were available online with a password and posted in a prominent location. Any member could join the Financial Committee and sit through a detailed group analysis. My local group were not sophisticated. They were shocked when I asked what standards ro best practices were employed. Nevertheless, the mere act of holding a piece of paper made me feel part of the community.
What is air conditioning costs compared to free labor. Free labor probably donated with a feeling of passion and commitment.
The same issues keep coming up in all different situations: Don't think. Don't question. Don't question even very politely. Just obey. Many religions have rigorous doctrines and dogma but the Witnesses seem to me to raise it to a level that has nothing to do with their core religious beliefs. Control for the mere sake of control. If you are going to invest heavily in property and factories, machines, etc., then you should do it shrewdly. We have no way of knowing. Without any monitoring, I imagine the waste is unbelievable.
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designs
'Out house consultants' Band, that was genius. lol
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jwfacts
Originally their model was effective. Keep JW's uneducated, and encourage them to devote their time to working for free selling Watchtower books and building halls. Since they stopped selling Watchtower magazines the model has fallen apart. A base of largely uneducated, low earning followers are no longer bringing in enough revenue selling Watchtower publications, and do not have enough disposable income to give significant levels of donation.
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ABibleStudent
According to the NNCF's ads "The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste", the WTBTS proves this everyday. The WTBTS could do a lot of things more efficiently and effectively, but the WTBTS is a cult so there is no incentive for the leadership to change and lighten the burdens of the R&F. A busy JW doesn't have time to think and reflect. Also, the leadership is trapped in its own historical doctrines from Russell and Rutherford being litigous to printing literature on paper instead of promoting the internet to JWs to access their literature on-line.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
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bnybyt
I think that if money is the motivation they have done a stunningly incompetent job of obtaining it.
The motivation could still be money, but their incompetence in handling money could be the reason for the saying "there's a right way and a wrong way and there's also a Watchtower way of doing things."
How many times at Bethel did you hear that no matter if someone had a better way of doing something, the way the watchtower did things would prevail above any ideas to improve or benefit anything.
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JeffT
jwfacts, good point about the collapse of the business model. When I became a JW (1973) they were selling something like 10 million magazines a month for $.25 a pop. The sales were guaranteed because they were paid for when picked up at the hall. Production and distribution costs were minimal (labor is always the big one and they didn't have that as an expense). That fell apart over tax issues. They would have been better off to sell the mags for .35 and pay the tax. They would still be rolling in money.
But that plan has failed and they don't seem willing or able to replace it with anything.
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jwfacts
JeffT - That fell apart over tax issues. They would have been better off to sell the mags for .35 and pay the tax. They would still be rolling in money.
I agree. They had a workable business model. The tax they would have paid on profit is only a small portion of total revenue. I am sure their total revenue has fallen by more than the tax they would have paid.