Is the Watchtower Society in serious financial diffiCULTy?

by cultswatter 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  blondie

  I think they are property rich and cash flow poor. The cash flow was more of a certainty when jws paid up front for the publications at the KH, a set amount. Now with the "donation" the dollar amount has dropped. My husband handled accounts for years and saw that about 4 to 5 families actually paid the bills. The ones that were "poor" would not even see $5 a month from families. He was having to coordinate the bills carefully.

  I expect that the WTS will continue to sell off the pricey Brooklyn properties and move all their processes up to Wallkill and Patterson. With the drop in personnel, they won't have to build as much new buildings.

  With the new buildings in Wallkill, I can see the WTS asking for new donations to cover that.

  What is the status of the French tax situation. Last I new it had been appealed to the EU court.

  Blondie
• 

  Axelspeed

  I think they are going to cut and run. Maybe not immediately, this all takes time. Launder the money, off-shore accounts, selling off of properties, cutting back on bethel staffers. The priveldged few insiders will get the golden parachute

  I have no proof of this, but that's one way I see it playing out too. I don't think they are poor at all, but they see the negative trends and the way things are going. They also see the money and a lot of assets sitting there, The dark side of human nature is strong enough I believe to motivate some to try and figure out a way to get a piece of it before any of it slips away via lawsuits, etc.

  The way the WT is structured, I don't think any one person could take off with the bank. But there's more than one way to skin a cat, and I can't help but think that these alternative ways of skinning are being looked into vigorously by some of those in the know at the top. In the meantime JWs will be kept busy with busy-work, fed retread articles, given cheaper publications in the name of simplification, and given enough New Light change and more "carrot and stick" (mostly stick) to propel the WT along till it reaches its rolling stop.
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  stillajwexelder

  no - not yet. However, controlling costs is what big corporations do.
• 

  Honesty

  Maybe the attorneys and the CEO and CFO of the WTBTS will figure out a way to liquidate property and then steal the liquid assets while at the same time they throw the Governing Body to the wolves.

  This would certainly bring on Armageddon, wouldn't it
• 

  bluesteel

  i heard that soon they wont be distributing anymore mags for people outside the congregation saying something about how the world is getting worse and that preaching will be no more or somethin
• 

  DaCheech

  the watchtower has some $$$$$$$ in their bank that belongs to our congreg. our congregation is contemplating asking the $$$$$$$$ back due to financial strain.

  we have less than $1k in the bank
• 

  Qcmbr

  For any organisation to have a resource problem its costs / outputs must exceed its income / outgoings to such an extent that over time its account = 0. The WT society has an enormous amount of built up capital - capital that exists in the form of worldy welath (should the state / mammon change create a new fiat currency and declare land ownership illegal then the WT society would be poor - its wealth is a relative measure of its worldliness.) So ironically the more financially secure it is the more worldy it is (by comparison Jesus had to get cash from fish guts.)
  
  Lets look at what outgoings the society has:
  
  1/ Printing costs
  2/ Energy and maintenance costs of property.
  3/ Legal costs of interacting with the world (licenses, lawyers, accountants etc..)
  
  Income:
  1/ Enforced congregation land liabilities
  2/ Capital gain on capital assets (not realised until sold but do count as an asset).
  3/ Donations.
  
  I suspect that as long as the west continues to experience land demand on an increasing scale then the capital appreciation on the land already owned will far outstrip the offset between operating costs and donations. Congregations will cover increased land costs for future aquisitions effectively insulating the WT from land costs will allowing them to benefit from gain.
  
  
  In short - the smartest thing the members of the WT society could do now is issue every member with a share in the WT society - realise all their assets (sell everything) and then form house churches. Then each and every share holder would make thousands of dollars AND they would no longer be part of this wicked system of things. Imagine how much cash large families of JWs would raise!!
  
  In effect the WT can never go under financially.
• 

  JWdaughter

  I don't know if it is because they are in difficulty or if they just don't want to 'give away' anything that they don't have to. The FOURTH time they have studied the Rev. book? Do they want them to memorize it? Maybe they figured out that the less they say, state, prophecy, the BETTER. They stick their collective foot in it so regularly that it might seem the better part of valor to just stick with the lies they already have and not make any more statements they have to back out of.

  I don't know what the announcements about the DC has anything to do with $$. Their annual reports have been showing certain trends for decades. They have their apologists no matter what. If they want to lie, they have the freedom (no accountability!) to do so.

  Many on this board have been saying for years that they should put the mags online. We give them grief about all they dead trees. Why NOT take advantage of the internet? For all the folks that have access-it makes sense. Well, a sick sort of sense-they don't have any real sense in the literature, why kill trees to propagate it?
• 

  bobld

  No I don't think they are in financial diffiCULTy.The CULT leaders will demand more from their slaves.Slaves are willing people who will simpify,sell their property and give everything to their CULT (gb gods).Then their are rich people who get sucked in to this cult without realizing who this evil god is.They suck blood from the local congregation by passing resolutions for money.Donate from C.A..D.C. etc.My understanding, one of the hugh apartment BLDGS in DUMBO was coverted to luxiury apartments for the public to purchase for mega dollars.Insider trading for wbts.

  Bob

  PS:The WBTS is selling a number of their properties privately, why?Why not let the market decide and get the highest price.
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  GermanXJW

  Is this the first time they state the number of Bethelites?