by Crazyguy 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
JeffT but what about the multitudes of corperations the WT has? Eaxh one is an entitiy with assets can't be attached to the other entities. Spreading around hte assets keeps hte $$$ safe from large lawsuits.
Also, not to forget the time value of money. The money is worth more today, or yesterday, than it will be in a few years. If the WT is looking to liquidate and launder the money through many corperations, and assigning debt to the US WT, now is the time to do so.
If the Watchtower controls the assets of those other corporations, those assets can be attached. I've done a lot of work with regional real estate companies, which owned multiple properties. Each property was organized a a seperate partnership or LLC. Whenever we got sued (happens a lot with apartment buildings) the suit always named the property, the property LLC, the managment company, and the parent company as defendents. If we lost, the lawyers would go wherever they needed to get their money.
I don't know, but now more than ever I have a really uneasy feeling about things. The fact that they have to destroy previous letters from the sociey, now a new tithing arrangment, liquidating assets and selling off properties, I mean what aren't they telling us. We're talking about dollar amounts which the average person can't begin to fathom, what are they hiding? Did they lose some heavy lawsuit or something, or other lawsuits?
I believe that they may have lost a lot of money in the stock market during the 2008-2010 down turn, the way they are acting is as if something big is about to hit the fan. Or it could be that the members are just done with donating, even before the crash my hall was only barely making the bills. Maybe they're seeing the writing on the wall, growth in developed countries gone. I mean everything they're doing screams we failed. Thier new types of preaching with only tracts and mobile display carts, what a joke, schools and missionary programs shut down or completely redone to make the R&F pay for themselves, its like theyre not even trying anymore!!!!
Destroying previous letters is the standard instruction when a new arrangement is put in place. It's to prevent brothers from getting mixed up when they find old letters in their file cabinet later.
The suggestion of the Society trying to hide assets in a complex corporate structure is nothing new. They've been doing that since at least the '90s, which if I recall correctly is the decade when they separated the Governing Body from the administrative structure of the Watchtower Society, making the president of the company some random paper-pusher instead of a GB member, and so on with the other top positions. It was more or less stated at the time that this was for the protection of the Society, as well as to relieve the GB of administrative duties like having to sign paperwork.
They have gotten away with changing fundamental doctrines like the FDS and Generation. They will change 1914 and 144,000 at some point but first off they want more money and they realise the 7 million jdubs believe they, in the GB, are God's chosen channel thus they know they can say or do anything...like give us your money...and they will obey...
The GB and WBTS was squeezed for money in a few directions - the tax free charity status meant they could no longer use the Witnesses to flog magazines. Also the effectiveness of door-to-door selling of a tired old message that all has have heard before ad nauseum in the West meant that the door to door ministry was both ineffective and demoralizing and the success of the Mormons online has pushed the WBTS to embrace that as the main mechanism for promoting the organisation in the West. But this breaks the traditional link between publications and money and makes the organisation totally dependent on donations from Witnesses. As others have said on other threads many Witnesses donate very little. And the rate of growth in the West has slowed and the increase in membership in the Developing World may actually be costing money rather than raising money. And legal liabilities have gone up and are likely to keep going up. So the WBTS has started generating cash by selling assets and bringing in the new tithing arrangements which make for a more predictable cash flow. At the same time, as others have said, they are cahnging the location of the money to make it more difficult for them to be sued. This is a wholesale revamp of the business model by stealth.
Apog, absolultly correct the assigning assets and multiple corperatins is nothing new to the WT. They began in the 90's ,set base operations. But the seelling off of all the properties in Brooklyn, now that IS something new. The property a little north is not so new, I believe it has been worked on for years, buying up ( or given ) more through the years.
It seems like a longer term plan is being implimented now. Again the time value of money is current. If they ever faced lawsuits ( like the ones that now loom) then they go to the plan, to get the assests as protected as possible. The KH individually could lose thier accounts being sued, so if their accouts are basically emplty, then the WT has those more protected against lawsuits. Plus the WT has total control over almost all monies so they can ferret away $$ by assiugnig it anywhere they choose right now. They can create on the balance sheet debt for each and every congregation, instead of a net positive producing KH they could look like they have basically notihng.
Gotta go....
I can't really see that they would want to put themselves in the position that they owe money to sexually abused victims, with no way to pay it.
I am starting to think that there's something to the suggestions that the GB knows that either time (the 1914 centennial) or changed doctrines are going to cost them members, so they are trying to collect what they can now.
