Hello 2tone, you have some good points, but I don't think you are giving the Watchtower enough credit as a for profit organization from the start. They know their finances better than anyone else. The recent liquidation is a precursive move motivated by a sudden drop in donations and a sudden increase in memorial partakers.
The Watchtower is one of the largest conspiracies of the known world. They literally have mystified billions of onlookers with their secret organization over the decades. What actually goes on behind the WT doors is not known to anybody but the very high ups. However I suspect that the most coveted information is in their record keeping. Think of an insurance company that studies their customer trends in order to make sure the insurance company comes out on top. Now apply that logic to the Watchtower, but instead of customers make them publishers. Highly, unethical, just like the Watchtower likes it.
Publishers have pockets, or are connected to people with pockets. The Watchtower knows the power of the individual donation and has built a successful monetary framework around it. They are the world's most widely distributed magazine. This is because they are the only magazine that doesn't care whether people read it or not. They create their own supply and demand by mind controlling their devout members. Every Witness knows about how Watchtower and Awakes litter garages and closets around the world. All that paper was SOLD to the Watchtower and the Watchtower made money off of every page, regardless of whether it was read or not.
To illustrate, lets say I am the lead singer in a band and you are my number one fan. I want to promote my band so I send you, as my biggest fan, a bunch of printed out logos and posters to put up around your town. However, I ask that you pay for the expenses needed to create the material and ship it to you. I purposefully buy lower quality material so that it's as less a burden on you as possible. Now, after I have gotten an agreement from you and had you sign a contract I purchase the materials and send them to you. You send me a check for the expenses.
What I have just done is created a supply and demand for the materials needed to promote my business. Now, if I can get you to commit to volunteering for me on a regular basis I can then make a deal with the materials company. If they get a guaranteed bulk buyer they will lower the price even further. I tell you this and you then grab 10 friends and tell them about the bulk discount. It's up to you to show my music to them and get them so jazzed about it that they will put up posters for free too.
Now the materials company(s) have incentive for you and your friends to work for free. Because if you don't work for free then they won't be selling any materials to me. What has happened is that my refusal to just hire people to do work for has created a dysfunctional economic environment.
This is exactly what happened with the Watchtower. Can you imagine how much money they have given paper companies over the years? The paper companies were being supported by Watchtower Volunteers, which is a dysfunctional economic environment. So much so that these companies would have vested interest in the Watchtower Society's continued existence. Maybe so much so that they would help hire lawyers to hide pedephiles, just a thought.
The Donation-Based Religious Model is problematic. The main problem is that it's connected to the global ecomony, which is not something you want to count on for a life saving work. Another is that people often over-donate which creates social classes in the church. Religion is a self governing state that answers only to their country (kind of). Just as governments tax, religion should too. When you get involved with a religion you should know what you are getting into financially. It should be spelled out before you become a member. Money is an extremely important cog in the religious model and entities like the Watchtower act like it's a sin to ask for money from the people are you serving. The Donation Model requires emotional coercion which doesn't do anything but breed corruption and class divisions.
In the end, the supply and demand for paper is going away with the new Age of the Internet, and by the looks of it, the Watchtower is heading down the toilet with it. Don't cry for them, but if you must here is a tissue made of paper.
-Sab
