In my reading there seems to be 2 schools of thought and I am just wondering which one is correct.
(1)Watchtower is a multi million dollar corporation that is making its money by fleecing its flock e.g K.H refurbs, giving preference to houses with an insurance cheque under the banner of emergency relief and pocketing the money from volunteer labour. To a lesser extent (although it wouldnt generate nearly as much money as the 2 examples above), Getting kick backs from international conventions,charging for car parking when they got it for free, society approved motels that are grovels in the middle of no where. I do wonder how they can get away with this under the title of of a Charitable trust, and I do at the very least think, this is cheeky.
It is cold and hartless and will roll anyone who gets in its way e.g Menlo park elders. It will chew you up and spit you out e.g career Bethelites who got the ax with little support- particularly if they were in bad health or older. When the WTS knew it was going to have to provide health care it was also "See you latter"
or
(2)They are loseing money and members at an alarming rate. Althought they sincerely believed that Jehovah would provide when they went to the donation arrangment , this has proved to be a flop e.g I had a friend who was accounts/magerzine servant, I recall him telling me that he was embarrassed at what he used to send to the society in the way of donations. This has now left them having to resort of cut backs and asset stripping of real estate. So hence it would make sense that an organisation that was running on an unsustainable financial model would have to let people go with out any after care or be able to pay medical. I think the reason they could be finding it difficult now from a financial stand point is that the system that was set up at its inception (e.g Russel) was only supposed to run until Armageddon which was just around the corner. That hasnt happened and its a case of what do we do now.
So my question is this??? How can a money hungry, heartless corporation at the same time be supplying its products at a loss. To the extent that this has forced them to sell up and cut back. I believe that although they may be well off as far as assets go they are struggling to get cash flow. Remember to, that this real estate was built up over a period of about 140 years. I have heard estimates of its value at about $2 Billion dollars. I do believe they could of done a lot better than this had of they wanted to and compared to some other religions who have been around for a lot shorter time that have been run more to a business model (e.g TV Avangalists, LDS). The WTS wouldnt be a big player in comparision.
I tend to go with option (2) myself. But hey I wanna hear what you say.