PO said automation and declining contributions reason for Bethel layoffs (page 4)

johnny cip

let all remember that bethel sent home about 500-1000 bethelites a few years ago ,when they moved the printing to wallkill. now add another 1000. your talking about 2000 sent home. in the course of less than 3 years. figure $20 a day to feed and house each bethelite $7300 a year + $110 a month pay. =1320 a year. $8620 per bethelite a year. make it an even $9000 a year X 2000= $18 million saved each year. were talking about each jw' paying $3 EACH PER YEAR TO PAY FOR THESES 2000 BETHELITES. IT'S NOT REALLY BIG DOLLARS. the wt is just cheap. john

Borgia

Blondie, I basically agree with you. But who dare say no? What will a cong do if it can not live up to the expected quota? how will the branch act in such a case. They have officers to enforce a certain policy.

This is a gray area. Where "suggestions", "encouragement", "councel" and all the other proza are euphemistically used.

Apart from that, If they would ask my advice, I would say, go there. We will finally be better of, in time.

But that´s just me.

Cheers

Borgia

parakeet

Another irony: the WTS discourages higher education, yet expects substantial contributions from members who are often not qualified to earn much more than minimum wage. It's like shooting someone in the foot and then expecting them to dance.

Warlock

There you go, Parakeet, there you go.

What's better? 10% of 30,000 a year or 10% of 70,000 a year?

Warlock

blondie

But who dare say no?

I have seen many say no....except for the obligation to send to them the monies put in the "worldwide" box and payments on loans from the WTS; I have seen many say no. The local BOEs can be very unwilling to send more money to the WTS. Did you know that the congregation has to vote on a resolution re monies on the COs. If the BOE forces a resolution and pays out of the donations currently in the congregation account, the rank and file will just stop donating. I have seen it done.........and the elders had to pay out of their own pocket.

Blondie

jgnat

Excellent point, parakeet. Here's some numbers on evangelical giving from www.barna.org for comparison.

The people most likely to share their wealth with others were evangelicals (93%),
Builders (ages 54-72, of whom 93% gave),
people from households making over $60,000 (93%), Note, households making $60,000 or more averaged $1687 a year. Read and weep, Watchtower.
and political conservatives (91%).

The people least likely to give contributions included

adults who do not attend a church (27% of whom made no donations last year);
Baby Busters (21%);
Hispanics (24%);
people with household incomes under $30,000 (25%);
political moderates (20%);
individuals who are not registered to vote (24%);
and adults who are not born again Christians (20%).

Elsewhere

Publishers are voting with their pocketbook

As I like to say: Whoever pays the bills makes the rules.

Sweetp0985

This is from that same article.
Awake! 1975 September 8 pp.24-26 Economic Woes Strike the Churches:
Well, consider: Back in 1879 in the second issue of The Watchtower (then called Zion's Watch Tower), it was noted:
"'Zion's Watch Tower' has, we believe, JEHOVAH for its backer, and while this is the case it will never beg nor petition men for support. When He who says: 'All the gold and silver of the mountains are mine,' fails to provide necessary funds, we will understand it to be time to suspend the publication."

I guess they got that prediction right...(highlighted area).... Already got rid of one of the bi-monthly Awake's..wouldn't be surprised to see no Awakes pretty soon...

under_believer

It's like some kind of beautiful dream... Here's to 10 more years of declining contributions, and an overreaction from the Society on how to deal with it. Cheers! *clink*

eyeslice

The WTB&TS is, as its name suggests, a publishing organization.
All organizations today are under pressure to reduce costs. And so surely the WTB&TS is the same. With modern type setting techniques, publications like the Watchtower can be translated and electronically typeset in one location and then transferred via the internet to remote locations and printed off in relatively small runs and distributed locally. There are dozens of other ways they can save costs - afterall, wit free labor, they have been a fairly wasteful organization.
I am not surprised that they can make savings.
The issue is about how they go about it and how they handle teir people.
If they were to say we are going to save the equivalent of 1,000 manual bethel workers over the next couple years but re-invest in people trained to provide basic health care in the third world, people who will spearhead poverty and deprivation in inner cities in the developed world, etc. then I could buy into that.

PO said automation and declining contributions reason for Bethel layoffs

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