I don’t know if anybody has ever said this or said it this way, but I will address one of your questions:
I will address this subject as a fable, fairy tale or even a parable, if you must be Biblical about the matter.
It seems that some legal entities are MONEY MACHINES!!! Now many people believe this, but don’t know what MONEY MACHINES are.
It came to pass that the MONEY MACHINE legal entities were "set up" as Non-Profit businesses, in which NO ONE can touch any specific/sizable bundle of bucks.
In the "Land of Non-Profit", the inhabitants came to be known as "Players".
Now, in the "Land of Non-Profit", there is ONE cardinal rule: the books MUST BALANCE TO ZERO!!!
The "Land of Non-Profit" must always have Wizard Accountants. That’s a necessity and it’s a given. I’ve seen a horde or two of them stroking their 10-keys.
It’s not really difficult to function in the "Land of Non-Profit". Accounting will tally up the revenues and the expenses into the common ledger format known as a "Profit & Loss Statement". If the forbidden and evil Profit rears its ugly head, the Courier cries throughout the Kingdom: SPEND SOME MONEY, BUY SOMETHING, BUILD SOMETHING!!!
All this can be planned ahead. If there is a glitch in the planning, it can probably be adjusted within a quarter. If not, by the end of almighty and worshipped Fiscal Year End, for sure.
Then there is always the business of "carry forwards" into the next accounting periods. Most business do a "loss carry forward" for tax and other accounting purposes. That is not wasted on these "Land of Non-Profit" people. They have some such scheme to turn the evil Profit into a non-event.
But, the "Players" can benefit by the FLOW OF THE DOLLARS. However, those that benefit have done the "Vow Of Poverty" thing.
This is a legal maneuver, TOTALLY LEGAL. Just as there are laws that prescribe and allow the "Land of Non-Profit", there is a provision for the Vow Of Poverty. It is based on parts of CFR Title 26, I believe. (That’s Code of Federal Regulations).
Somebody on old H2O posted part of those once and I looked them up. Turns out they have to be given an allowance of roughly a 100$/month or 1200$/year.
Now, I blow that much on a girl-friends bad mood; so it’s a piddly allowance. But, the Players get a MILLION $$$$’s worth of perks; the catch is, the Players can’t haul off a Megabuck, per se.
Unfortunately, the Players are slaves to that arrangement: they must dance to the pull of the puppetmasters string, they can’t always "call the shots" and they mustn’t "rock the boat". And more than one person can benefit, so they basically have a club of people "milking the cash cow". But, that makes for competition and rivalry over who gets the "best seat at the Master’s table"... hmmm... gotta check & see if this is scriptural...
Essentially, there was a conflict on how to do all this, but the Accounting Wizards always pulled it off based on the "Non-Profit" game. The "Land of Non-Profit" is allowed by the government to further certain "social aims". Theses Players may not be a good fit for the intended purposes, but THEY FOLLOW THE RULES.
Well, the rules had some loose ends, until some Accounting Wizard minion "tumbled to" the way the Catholic Church has done things for over a millennium: THE VOW OF POVERTY.
The Taxman cameth and the Taxman wenteth; but he wasn’t happy with all that FREE LABOR(???) and a few thousand people who didn’t fit any of the nice neat "accounting pigeonholes" that "normal folks" fall into. (1st mistake: these Players aren’t normal).
So, the Taxman wenteth away, but he went muttering, mumbling and grumbling. And of course, he always came back.
Then a lowly Apprentice Accounting Wizard asked the dumb question: how does the Catholic Church do it with all those Monks & Monasteries?
Uhh, VOW OF POVERTY??? I believe that I have heard of something such as this... I once visited a relative at one of these institutions.
Quick, call in the Wizards of Legal and look up some Accounting Law: lo & behold, there is a Federal Law about this!!!
Give the man a kewpie doll!!!! Let the Apprentice Accounting Wizard be knighted unto being a full Accounting Wizard before the fullness of his time!!! Let him have his choice of quarters!!!
Hey, put this in effect!!! You, lowly Bethelite @ 14$/month!!! Yes, you!!! you are getting a raise, to.... uhh, ~100$/month: SIGN THIS PAPER!!!
And a Proclamation was spread through the "Land of Non-Profit"; and all the Players were taken under the rule of the new, great and wonderful proclamation. And all the Players, from the highest to the lowliest signed the VOW OF POVERTY!!
And the Taxman cameth once more; and he beheld the wondrous new sheaves of paperwork and pronounced it good. And much praise was heaped upon the Accounting Wizards.
And all were happy:
The Taxman wenteth with a smile and a cheery "I’ll be back" this time.
And the newly appointed Accounting Wizard received even more rewards.
The Legal Wizards was excited with the cleverness that they had credited to themselves.
The Royal Scribes in Writing was totally happy that they weren’t at all involved in this one, had to sweep this under rug and got a raise in the bargain.
And all the Players, from the highest to the lowliest were pleased with themselves at having a new entitlement.
And the highest of the all, the Chief Player poured himself another Martuni, went out on the town and charged himself an evening of celebration.
Well, that’s taken care of, the Chief Player says to himself. If only the apostate issue were this easy!!!
Mustang
All that I write or utter, is protected by religious freedom under the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as the "free exercise", as well as "freedom of speech" clauses.
