by Fisherman 192 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
he will talk himself into anywhere
@ Morpheus Actually, SBF posted his argument and his conclusion in his previous thread. I can't debunk what he stated and I haven't seen anything posted here in dollars and cents or business model that debunks it either.
Of course WT could keep selling off its assets and spending all its money until it's all over and wait till the very end when they are broke. But why wait so long if they know that it is only a matter of time before they go broke.
If I understand the charts on this page correctly they indicate that the magazines cost less than 5 cents to produce at a time when the cover price was 25 cents. (That differs from the price quoted above but it's the figure Watters gives for 1979 - worth checking if possible) With a circulation of 10 million each of W & A that would mean a profit of $94 million a year just from magazines.
Books are more difficult to work out, both the unit cost and the sales totals.
But when you consider that each JW in this period would likely buy: a yearbook, a daily text book, a calendar, a couple of the new release books for the year, plus other items less regularly: Bibles, song books, tapes, videos, concordances, insight books, reference Bibles, large print editions and so on. Incomes from literature sales was clearly substantial. No wonder they had money to burn in the 1980s and into the 90s!
SBF, what about the literature used in field service, did the pubs have to pay in advance for the books and mags?
I wonder if anyone knows or has a good estimate what monthly allowance bethelites got in the 1980s and an estimate how much it cost to house and feed them. My very rough guess is they could have done that for $5000 or less per bethelite per year. If there were around 5000 bethelites in the period that would mean a total cost of $25 million a year to house, feed and pay bethelites an allowance. That's probably an overestimate.
I was friends with a Bethelite and she'd left there in 1990. She was paid a very small amount - seems it was only $80.00 a month. Even though they received food, housing, etc., medical, she said it was very difficult to make it through the month.
I would think Randy's site would have the pay scale just to be certain. I recall her working about 5-1/2 to 6 days a week in the 1980 - late 80s. How do some Bethelites hold down part time jobs! Slave labor for sure.
Remember that Watchtower owns an orange grove/producing company in Florida and who knows how many other cos. They're, of course, not in the league as the Morman Church who owns Coke a Cola or Pepsi -- maybe both. Morgans are a very wealthy organization.
It's such a secret org! We're clueless how much they collect off of estates, stocks/bonds - they're heavily invested in Rand (?) Corp., which is military war items. They were bequeathed the stock but held on to it so it must yield strong dividends. They probably hold millions in the stock market -- or should.
Not "Morgans" - LOL - stupid auto check -- but Mormans.
Fisherman, as I understand it yes, publishers paid up front for the literature at the desk. I also recall something about pioneers or special pioneers getting a discount. I can't quite remember that far back in detail.
I find it interesting that in the UK Jehovah's Witnesses have around 130,000 active members who donated £15 million to the Watchtower Society in 2013. Whereas Mormons have around 70,000 active members who donated £30 million to their church. The situation is probably much more complicated than that. But the idea Mormons contribute something in the region of four times as much as JWs would not surprise me at all.
SBF, are you saying the LDS have the only correct meaning of "tithe"? That's what it looks like! The Mormons didn't invent the term. It goes back to ancient Israel, right? What happened to an ancient Israelite who failed to ante up his 10%? Was he stoned? Prohibited from entering the tent complex and later the temple ones? Kicked out of the nation or the synagogue? By your definition, yes.What is your evidence here? Why are you being so narrow on what the term means?
One of the several definitions of the word in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary is simply "a small tax or levy." Lighten up, chap!
How's the book selling business going?
I think I'm with SBF in that it would be better for the religion to go through a major reform than to disappear completely (at least in the short term.) That way, we could (hopefully) avoid mass suicides and depression because witnesses could keep their resurrection hope without having to be so strict about everything. Even if they won't admit it, I think that the majority of witnesses would love it if the GB relaxed most of the rules and regulations.
