How can the WTS be short of money ?

by the max 19 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  factfinder

  I don't think the printing of magazines and books each month is a drain on the WTS if they are still recieving $900 million a year in donations. Why not?

  It cost them between 5 and 8 cents to print a magazine (or brochure).

  It costs them about 35 cents to print a book.

  So what might this come to in a year?

  82 million magazines per month=about $7 million =$84 million for the year

  9 million books per month =$3 million =about $38 million per year (rounded)

  Cost spent on Bethelites and traveling overseers in 2010= $155 million.

  This comes to about $275 million . This does not include other printing costs such as brochures, tracts and forms nor does it include the shipping costs. Still if each year $900 million is coming in then after printing the books and magazines and paying for the Bethelites there is still over $600 million left for the other costs.

  Wouldn't that be enough? I would think so.
• 

  GOrwell

  Where do you get $900 million a year in donations from? Seems a bit much.
• 

  Snoozy

  Seems like they are in the same financial situation as the Government..and we know where their money goes..

  Politicians have deep pockets as do some of the Higher execs at the WTBTS...

  Funny how so much alike the two are considering..

  It's all about the money with both of them!

  Snoozy
• 

  Aussie Oz

  MY thoughts are that the WT CORP no longer needs to worry about money as it has become a multinational investment corporation with the ability to upsize or downsize at will to protect its bottom line.

  Like all corporations, the workers are merely tools to keep the CEO's in a comfy way of life.

  oz
• 

  slimboyfat

  Stopping giving money to the Watchtower is usually one of the first steps on the way out of the Watchtower, as has been discussed on here many times. I think many Witnesses have withdrawn financial support but continue to take the literature.

  The Society is also heavily invested in real estate and failed to get out in time before prices crashed.

  The hurried withdrawal from branches around the world indicates they are seriously short of cash.
• 

  slimboyfat

  The WTS is sitting on $Billions in real estate in Brooklyn, but of course that is not realizable until they have their next big upstate compound built and the real estate market recovers

  If they think prices will ever "recover" to peak prices during the bubble they could be waiting a very long time indeed. Let's hope that is their strategy and that it causes them serious hardship when the recovery fails to materialise.
• 

  J. Hofer

  >For the last time,

  > local congregations hold the deed to their Kingdom Hall, not the Watchtower Society!!

  no... where i live the local congregations do NOT own the kingdom hall. there's a kingdom hall association that owns them.
• 

  Anony Mous

  It cost them between 5 and 8 cents to print a magazine (or brochure).

  It costs them about 35 cents to print a book.

  Not these days anymore. I used to work in the printing industry a couple of years ago and a magazine or brochure of roughly double the size of a WT would cost us roughly 50c in materials, wages, room, backend etc for a run of 1M units before shipping. Off course they have the advantage of free labor and tax breaks but the investments in those machines are large and they run a lot more units monthly + shipping. I would at least double your quote.
• 

  factfinder

  @Anony Mous-

  Hi! These estimated costs are based on information a brother who worked for years in the pressroom office at 117 Adams Street told me.

  The hardcover books would cost more but most books are softcover these days.

  But even if we double the costs for total printing and money spent on bethelites it still would leave the wts with several hundred million dollars for other things each year.

  Now if on the other hand donations have dropped off sharply from the 2001 figure of over $900 million (this was for the NY wt corporation only- its not total donations) perhaps things could get tighter. Obviously the reduction in magazine production which reached a high of 1.2 billion in 2005 SY and the changeover of most books to softcover would indicate major cost-cutting efforts were needed.

  But the printing methods they use are very energy/cost effective.

  Unless the shipping costs are far above what I think they are, the wts still has sufficiant funds to continue operating with no major problems.

  If costs get too high, we could see the g become bi-monthly or even the public w -this would cut production even more- if neccesary. But instead we see large increases in circulation for both magazines each year and book production has climbed to over 108 million by 2008.
• 

  factfinder

  @GOrwel- Hi!

  There was an article in a NY newspaper that mentioned that in 2001 the WTB&TS of NY Inc. recieved donations of over $ 950 million. Other WTS corporations and Associations also recieve millions of dollars per year in donations. That is why I was using the $900 million figure for annual donations.