With all the wealth of watctower surely there must be something can be done for these people?
And indeed their solution is to kick them to the curb before they get any older and let them fend for themselves. I also wondered how the hell they can be 'laying off' middle-aged Bethelites and pointing them out the back door while at the same time begging for new younger recruits through the front door. It's not like you get a great paycheque or anything.
The only thing I can think of is that Crooklyn needs people with skills now. That means they need computer programmers, constructional engineers, electricians, mechanics, technicians, doctors, nurses and all the lawyers they can get. The 56 year old Bethelite who was first mentioned in this thread, was 19 when he entered Bethel and that would have been in 1976. Virtually no Witnesses would have had any marketable skills when they entered those doors in '76 and they never developed any. Fast-forward 37 years and you've got a scene right out of an Austin Powers movie where they're still living life like it was 30+ years ago without realizing the world has changed. You could call it: The Cult That Shagged Me.
I sincerely doubt they're given any kind of a settlement when they're handed the dreaded pink slip, or if it they are, it's absolutely minimal. When Ray Franz was given the boot, I think they gave him $10,000 and he had been a member of the Governing Body. I can't see them giving a damn about a lower ranking Bethelite......