why the watchtower is so short of money

by pepperheart 89 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  slimboyfat

  The Sears comparison is excellent Sigfrid, exactly what is happening, they are selling off assets to buy time but their structural deficit remains and is catching up with them.

  The sale of Brooklyn property only provided a very short respite. Even if we assume they got 2 billion dollars from the sales (probably closer to 1 billion) and it only cost 500 million to relocate to Warwick. That leaves 1.5 billion. If their annual running costs are around 2 billion (as indicated by various comments by Lett, possibly higher) then that means the sale of Brooklyn properties would cover running costs for less than one year.
• 

  sir82

  Something's not adding up with your numbers.
  

  What would they be spending $2 billion per year on?

  Taking care of several thousand Bethelites, COs. etc. is a "hundreds of millions" number (the number they give in their annual report is in the $200-$300 million range - which may or may not be accurate, but what do they have to gain by lowballing that number? Seems like they'd be more interested in overstating it, to encourage more contributions).

  They have cut way back on printing, although they still do some, so that's a (relatively) little more spent on supplies & raw materials.
  

  There are legal fees, but it would stagger the mind if those rose anywhere close to 9 digits per year. They aren't paying out that much in child abuse settlements.

  Where does the rest of that money go, if their annual outlay is $2 billion?
• 

  slimboyfat

  The $200 million figure in the yearbook is only for “travelling overseers, missionaries and special pioneers”. The cost of keeping 20,000 bethelites and maintaining 80 branches is in addition to the $200 million figure. And then there are publications, digital output, legal fees and other costs on top of that.

  Plus another reason for saying Watchtower spends around $2 billion a year is that Lett’s comments indicate revenue of around $2 billion and Lett on another ocassion said there is “more money going out than coming in”. Therefore if revenue is around $2 billion then expenditure is logically at least $2 billion.

  I would add that these figures are rendered entirely plausible by a close scrutiny of the figures for the Seventh Day Adventist church which are freely available. They raise and spend even more than JWs. On the one hand that’s suprising because they are from poorer countries and don’t produce as much literature. On the other hand they tithe their members and build school and hospitals and have paid clergy.
• 

  _Morpheus

  Something's not adding up with your numbers.

  Correct. Slim has pulled them from his arse and has no facts to back them up whatsoever

  lets book mark this amongst his many many failed predictions:

  That leaves 1.5 billion. If their annual running costs are around 2 billion (as indicated by various comments by Lett, possibly higher) then that means the sale of Brooklyn properties would cover running costs for less than one year.

  In 2021 slim will still be saying ‘collapse will come, any day now.....’
  
  
  
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  2 BILLION$ in annual outlay? NFW!

  15000 in "full time service" x $2000/yr = $30 MILLION, thus I think the $200 MILLION figure in the Yearbook must include all expenses for all "full time servants" including the costs of food, housing, monthly stipend, etc. Plus I think the "free labor" is likely their biggest cost in the entire operation, which is why they are dramatically cutting back on the number of "free" workers.
  
• 

  Finkelstein

  The sale of Brooklyn property only provided a very short respite.

  and what about all the other branches sold around the world totaling at least 10 ?

  One could honesty say that in the last couple of years or more the WTS has been very cash rich.

  The WTS is notably devious as to its overall financial picture,

  They always say we need more , we need more , we need more.
  

  Here's a thought, if they were so poor why did they announce that they would let go of all Congregational loans for Kingdom Hall renovations ?

  Jehovah's earthly publishing house is wrought with corruption on many levels.
  
• 

  notsurewheretogo

  It doesn't matter as to their cash situation...they are not going to disappear in our life time
• 

  slimboyfat

  The $200 million figure in the yearbook is only for travelling overseers, missionaries and special pioneers. The wording is very clear.

  The cost of stipend, food, shelter, health, travel and other costs of the 20,000 bethelites worldwide (down from nearly 30,000) is in addition to the $200 million.

  It is very easy to see how Watchtower spends in the region of $2 billion a year (and as I mentioned, is a smaller spend that the Seventh Day Adventist Church, for example) but if you don’t appreciate that then I guess that goes some way to explaining why many think that $1 billion from the sale of Brooklyn properties is some sort of everlasting life saver.

  And don’t forget the move to Warwick might have been “cheap” but it wasn’t free either, ditto Chelmsford. Plus we are not even sure that Watchtower didn’t take out loans against the value of their assets at any point. So do we even know for sure they realised the full amount from the sales they made? Even if they realised the full amount, it is not as large in relation to their running costs as some imagine.

  It clearly wasn’t, otherwise why did they cancel the yearbooks start selling KHs and all the rest of the cutbacks.
• 

  sir82

  The cost of stipend, food, shelter, health, travel and other costs of the 20,000 bethelites worldwide

  (down from nearly 30,000) is in addition to the $200 million.

  Ok....food on an institutional scale might cost $2000 per year per Bethelite.

  Shelter is in fully paid-for branch facilities. There is maintenance and utilities, let's call it another $2000 per year per Bethelite.

  Health care is 90% provided by in-house fellow volunteers. If anyone gets too sick (cancer, etc.) they are kicked out. Still, let's be generous and say $10,000 per Bethelite per year).

  Travel...only the biggest of the big shots get their travel paid for. 99% of Bethelites don't travel on the WTS dime. But let's be generous and allow $1000 per Bethelite per year.

  "Other costs" - no idea what those might be, but let's be generous and assume $5000 per Bethelite per year.

  So that's a total of $20,000 per Bethelite per year, for 20,000 Bethelites, which works out to.....

  $400 million per year.

  Still don't see how you jump from [200M + 400M] $600 million to "$2 billion per year".
  
• 

  Gayle

  "Here's a thought, if they were so poor why did they announce that they would let go of all Congregational loans for Kingdom Hall renovations ? ""

  Possibly there was a legal glitch ,, maybe law said they can't do inner "loans" with congs.?? Against "religion" laws by gov.??