Is the watchtower in the red or planning for something ?

by 5go 43 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  5go

  It does but doesn't seem to be in trouble monetarialy.

  What is going on. Are they OK but seeing the writing on the wall with lawsuit or something else.

  Or, are they broke and just hiding it.
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  SirNose586

  With all that the Tower rakes in, I doubt they are in trouble...but as has been suggested in other threads, the the printing may not be taking in enough dough. This is of course why Awake went to monthly subscription.

  One hopes that they are staring down the barrel of potentially damaging lawsuits...
• 

  blondie

  The WTS owns a great deal of expensive property, land and buildings and equiipment. But that doesn't pay the bills. The WTS is really a corporation, several corporations and all that has to be maintained with some sort of cash flow. Up until 1990 the WTS had a regular flow of cash through the publications which had a set price and they could see how much was being purchased over a certain timeframe. Now it is up and down to the point the WTS sends letters to congregations pointing out that the "donations" for the worldwide work don't equal the value of the publications they are receiving.

  Another source of money is investments the WTS has made in stocks and bonds. Anyone who participates in that knows that over the last few years that has been very up and down, even taking a big dive at one point.

  Some monies come in through donations from individual JWs, perhaps through wills or a useful thing where you can give your money to the WTS and they can invest it under the more favorable tax laws of a non-profit corporation. I think most JWs are not savvy enough to use that.

  It has been 16 years since the "donation" arrangement was implemented and I think it has taken that long to dent the cash flow along with the drop in their investments.

  Stopping subscriptions, once a month Awakes, paperback books and bibles, are just a sign of a bigger problem.

  Has anyone on here done the books of a large corporation. I have, assets of over 500 million. It was enlightening.

  Imagine that you still have a job but you net only $3,000 a month but you have $3,500 to pay out. You might have a savings account but eventually that dries up. You might even borrow against property but eventually the piper has to be paid. There are only 2 good ways to handle this, lower your payouts or increase your income. The WTS seems to be trying to lower their payouts.

  Blondie
• 

  sspo

  A few weeks back,for the local need part, publisher were reminded once again about contributing more for the literature that they're ordering.

  Besides Wat. and awake which usually are not even placed because the offer is always something else, hundreds of personal items is being ordered by publishers for personal use and very little is being contributed.

  Elders gave a dollar amount of money received and they felt it was approx 10% of the value that was being ordered.

  You multiply losses in over 10000 congregations in the US alone and i beleive the society is losing a lot of cash.

  Contributions have always been very low in every cong. i've attended.
• 

  NewYork44M

  Blondie is dead-on.

  Wealth and cash flow are two separate things. Cashflow needs to carry operating expenses. That the society has "laid-off" workers and reduced the outflow of publications is an indication that cashflow is a problem.

  The emphasis on Tracts reflects the cashflow problems also. The society needs to keep the r&f busy. But having the minions passing out magazines is expensive. Let them focus on a single sheet tract and they are kept busy whle the overall expense is controlled.

  Everything is about money.
• 

  Jourles

  Imagine that you still have a job but you net only $3,000 a month but you have $3,500 to pay out. You might have a savings account but eventually that dries up. You might even borrow against property but eventually the piper has to be paid. There are only 2 good ways to handle this, lower your payouts or increase your income.

  This is exactly what is happening to the WTS. If the cutbacks on literature does not stop the bleed, the next item we will see is kh's being sold and congregations being consolidated/merged together. I have a feeling that this will come a lot sooner than we think.
• 

  drew sagan

  Adding to Blondies post I have to say that I can't understand why they ever got rid of the donation arrangement the way they had it. I know they didn't want to pay those taxes, but why not just simply raise the price of the literature to compensate?
  
  I think that when that decision was made to much faith was put on 'Jehovahs Will' with the organization. They felt that since they have Gods blessing he would make sure the money kept coming in the door. That's why they went for a totally differant system instead of just asking a few more bucks for your monthly literature.
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  OnTheWayOut

  As a faithful dub, I always was book and magazine conscious. I took care of my own literature
  and I took care of placeable literature. I did not order books until I needed them. When the
  donation process started, I stayed roughly the same. I did notice that this was not the case
  with all dubs.

  You forget your song book or Bible. Grab a new one at the counter before the meeting. You
  fill your recruiting bag with brochures that get damaged. Leave them at the laundromat and get
  an entire set for your bag. Now imagine about 1 million of us doing that. Plus several million of
  us don't make much money (no college or overtime) so we don't contribute much for the books.
  Pioneers feel that they are serving God, they often contribute even less for the larger number of
  books they get.

  All this, and they were still making a profit on books. Well- they were for awhile. Truly, the
  dubs in wealthier lands are getting tighter on their wallets. If recruitment is down, certainly gathering
  donations from the "field" is down. Many JW's feel that they will donate all moneys from the field
  and not much from their wallet. Then they don't get money from the field. Even though there is not
  enough profit from the field on books, they still make money on assemblies and conventions. The
  problem is that these are corporate sales meetings- designed to raise sales. You can't have these
  assemblies unless you continue to sell books- there just isn't a point to them. So you continue to
  promote what isn't making a profit, because money is still up overall. Now, you gotta change something.
  Cut the quality and quantity, but keep the same corporate sales meetings. That's working right now.

  Add to that, donations for disaster relief. They have instructed dubs to just give cash to WorldWide Work
  instead of to a specific disaster fund. As long as there are disasters, the organization will make money.
  They gather our dollars, but all the labor is free. They buy some materials (lumber, bricks), but most is
  donated by the free labor providers (food, tools, clothing, much of the building material).

  My opinion is that they are still raking it in, but they look at the bottom line in each area. The literature
  that was always their main course is now the side dish.
• 

  james_woods

  This again brings up my continuing wonderment at why they didn't just agree to pay the sales tax, and raise the magazine cost to cover it - it would have kept the steady cash flow, which we all know really came from the publishers buying a set number of magazines per month and then throwing most of them away. The books and bound volumes were never as good because they were discretionary purchases for the publishers, who tended to only buy what they could really use. Probably also cutting the Awake to one issue per month was bad for the cash flow as well.

  I guess their anti-government self-righteous attitude made them think they were above the law and they had to do the "voluntary contribution" thing to save face. Tax Jehovah's magazine publisher? Hell no.

  Even if we have to get into bed with bad Televangilists to try the case.

  Well great, now they can just grub for money from the congregations like the churches of Christendom.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  why they didn't just agree to pay the sales tax

  James, it's time to learn.
  If a new tax is minor, and people just pay it, the government has gotten away with establishing a new tax.
  When the government needs money, they will raise the tax. They do this with cigarettes, road tolls,
  vehicle stickers, licenses, permits, etc.

  In Chicago, there is a take-out tax on junk food. It's about 0.5 %. No big deal so people pay it. On your
  own lunch, it usually works out to 3 to 6 cents, why argue? The problem is that the city has now established
  a tax that nobody argued about. When the budget falls short, they will raise it to 0.75% and more in the
  future.

  The time to fight a tax (or avoid a tax) is at the establishment-point. If you just pay it, then the law will be on
  their side. I am all in favor of taxing the WTS, but I understand the principle of avoiding taxes that you don't
  think you should pay.

  By the way, I am not tackling any windmills, myself. As a fading JW, I don't go protesting taxes, but I would
  if I were never involved in this whacko cult.