When I first realized that the WTBTS was not teaching the truth, I thought "well, they are basically good people and teaching some morals, so what real harm is there?".
Then I started looking at the opportunity cost. By this I mean all the things that a JW does not have access to if they believe the WTBTS nonsense.
By nonsense I mean the way the WTBTS holds themselves up as having ALL the answers and JWs are admonished not to seek any counsel outside of the WTBTS.
For example, I suffered from intense emotional pain all my life because of my early childhood. This is very debilitating and it can be helped by a skilled counselor/therapist/pychologist. For me it only took two sessions. The WTBTS of course, tells JWs that they don't need "worldly" counselors, BUT the elders are not trained nor skilled nor qualified to give that kind of therapy.
In pretty much any topic you want to talk about the WTBTS holds themselves up as the only and the final authority on the subject. Marital problems? Go confess to the elders. yeah, that will help a lot. They will tell you to study and pray more. And go sell more magazines. Financial problems? Well, brother if you were putting Jehovah first he would bless you, but since he is obviously not blessing you then you must not be putting Jehovah first. Emotional problems? Pray more and study more. Psychological problems? Confess your sins to the judicial committee and pray more and study more.
Oh, then there is the admonition not to prepare for a career or to pursue a wortwhile career. And the year books are filled with glorification of janitors. I found this very strange that the ONLY profession that the WTBTS says anything good about is janitorial work. Those people must be truly deranged.
A freind of mine when I was in my late teens, in response to my telling him that I wanted to pioneer, said "You don't know enough about anything to pioneer". He then explained, "In order to pioneer, you have to work part time, in order to work part time you have to have a skill that allows you to both work your own schedule and make enough working part time to support yourself." Of course, the WTBTS tells you that all you need is to "put Jehovah first (whatever in the fuck that means)" and you don't need to go to school or to worry about your career.
Anyway, I am getting side tracked. The point is that the WTBTS sets itself up as the ultimate, final, and only authority for every aspect of life in a JWs life and then provides NOTHING of value for really critical issues.
Compare this to the good that the WTBTS COULD do if they cared at all about their "flock".
The WTBTS has immense influence in the lives of tens of millions of people. These people look to them for answers for everything.
With the immense wealth that the WTBTS has they could easily:
1. Give elders and ministerial servants real traning in counseling, therapy, pscyhology, etc, so that these really could fill the roles that the WTBTS claims for them.
2. Provide training in trades so that JWs could have the skills needed to be able to work their own schedules and make enough when they do work that they can work less and devote more time to "putting Jehovah first (whatever in the fuck that means)".
I now am skilled in several trades because I got tired of being a pauper (and treated like the poor relation in the congregations) and there is something to be said of the master/apprentice relationship. I also have strong computer and math and physics skills that I obtained by round the clock study for several years.
3. Put the quick build system to work helping families build their own home. I recommended this many times. I said we could train many brothers to do the quick build system, not just the elites who were given all the good jobs at every quick build. Then we could put together a pool of say 20 families and each family agrees to work enough to build 20 homes and at the end each family has a home. And the quick build committee as a whole would provide enough volunteers to help the 20 families so that 20 homes could be built in a year. Not only were they not interested in this plan but they got upset with me for refusing to shut up about it when I was told to shut up about it.
This would also give brothers more time to "put Jehovah first (whatever the fuck that means)" because with a small mortgage you have to work less.
4. The WTBTS claims to be "Bible scholars". LOL What a joke that is. The WTBTS also claims that its members are "Bible students". Since they convince us not to go to college we al believe this nonsense because we don't know what real scholarship is. I was given the chance to work with real scholars on some engineering and math topics. Wow. What a difference. I explained the "bible study" approach of the WTBTS to a few of my scientist friends and they at first were puzzled, then angry then told me that what I was explaining was not "study" but brainwashing.
Think about it. The WT "study" is memorizing answers to underlined questions.
Anyway, imagine if the WTBTS really was doing scholarly work and the JW flock really were "bible students" in the true sense of the term "scholar". 3 meetings a week plus a personal study plus a family study. Hell, in 2 or 3 years you could attain Masters level competency in a given field.
So, if the WTBTS really were scholars they could be running an education system that would be the best in the history of the world. And a shining example to the rest of the world.
I could go on and on and on.
I think the biggest damage that the WTBTS does to peole is the opportunity cost. We are taught that the WTBTS is the end all and be all for everything, yet they don't provide ANYTHING of value. So, for topic after topic, a JW looks to the WTBTS for help/answers/guidance and gets garbage, when they could have looked to someone who actually knew what they were talking about and received good advice/counsel/help/therapy.
This is why I detest the WTBTS so much.