This is just my musing. There's no serious controversy in my musings, just ramblings. So move on and don't bother if you are looking for controversy. Otherwise, please share your thoughts.
My JW wife's best friend (call her Sally) moved back home to a tropical island to live with her parents (call them Mr. and Mrs. Smith) until Sally could manage on her own. We have visited there a few times. The first time, I made the mistake of letting my wife and Sally talk me into staying at the Smith home instead of getting a hotel or a Bed and Breakfast- won't happen again. Mr. Smith would watch CNN for hours and keep moaning about how terrible the world has become. Everyone in the family was expected to be a pioneer recruiter.
The Smith home was not isolated, but was probably in the best location that a private home could be at on the island. The home was at the very end of the paved road. There were homes beyond this one, but they were on unpaved roads that were not maintained by the government. Not only did the Smiths have easy access from the paved road, but their property was right on a nice beach on the bay. Beaches are not considered private property, so technically their property butted against the beach, but all the other homes in this area were up the hill or off of cliffs. Those homeowners would need to walk next to the Smith property to get to the closest decent beach to their homes. But the Smiths could store a kayak a few feet from the beach and could snorkel within view of their back door.
Mr. Smith was ultra-proud that he has retained family land that has been handed down for so many generations and never had any intention of losing that land. Such property was probably worth 3 million dollars before the real estate market crash around 2008, and would still be easily worth 2 or more million now. And that's just the property. It's a shame the Smiths live in a broken down trailer home on that property.
I tried to figure this family out. They had 4 children, 2 of them have died as adults. None of them had been really encouraged to make any mark in the world or get a decent education. None of them owned their own business despite growing up in a huge tourism place where people typically work their way up to owning something- a store or rental condo or a charter fishing boat or a car rental agency or even a fruit stand. None of them had any of that, and Sally had an Associate's Degree only because she moved to the United States for several years and got her education online when WTS relaxed it's rules on college while she was earning a living driving a school bus. But all of the Smith's children were old enough that they were born before 1970. The Smiths have no real retirement funds, just enough to get by. They drive decent cars (to do their pioneer service) but have nothing else except for cable television with that CNN.
Sally moved back home where two of her siblings already were, and later the fourth child also moved back home. They just weren't making it as pioneers outside of home, so they continued pioneering by returning to being a burden to their parents. The two siblings who died were the ones who had never left home and never really seemed to have any decent healthcare. (I won't digress about that sad situation.) The remaining two siblings work just enough to get by and pioneer.
On our last visit, Mr. Smith said that his family land included property on the other side of the paved road (up on the hill), away from the wonderful beach but still in view of it. That land was involved in some kind of dispute and nobody was able to use it until Mr. Smith obtained a lawyer recently. He decided to sell that land to a developer and give the money to his family before he passes away- The Smiths are on the high side of 80 years old. And if the family wants to, Mr. Smith is not opposed to them using some of the money to build on the property where the broken down trailer now sits, so that the entire family can be comfortable.
So I figured it out. They are an Armageddon family.
There was no need to have a nicer home decades ago when Armageddon was coming. There was no need to send kids to college or work hard to get their footholds into the tourism business in some way when Armageddon was coming. Everyone needed to pioneer, even though the population of the island was small. Everyone had to show Jehovah that they deserved to receive His undeserved kindness by focusing on the most important work ever- selling/distributing Watchtower literature for the enrichment of Jehovah's Printing Company. There was no need to legally establish the land on the other side of the road with Armageddon coming. As long as they were so close to Armageddon, barely getting by while pioneering was the way to go.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith are showing signs that they feel bad about bringing up their children this way. They are showing signs of not being so happy that now the "generation" is subject to an overlap and the end might not come while they are breathing. I could imagine them getting 2 million dollars or more for that land up the hill- it has a great view and is still at the paved road, but away from town. I can imagine they will be sure that their remaining two children can keep on pioneering until they die with that money and telling them they can build a nice home will keep them from wanting to move away with their newfound riches. Sally wants to build a small building with rental units and manage it and pioneer. She seems content to find a mate and have children later when she gets to paradise. Sally's brother is divorced from a cheater that left Jehovah but won't provide evidence that he is scripturally free to remarry. (I hope he is really leading a double life, getting some on the side, but it doesn't seem so.) So it seems he will take his sexual frustration and turn it to pioneering until he gets to paradise, or until the cheater proves he can have a mate "in this system." It's such a sad situation. The Smiths are not giving up, but are accepting whatever Watchtower says about how close Paradise really is to arriving. The Smiths are tired and lived their entire 80+ years expecting Armageddon. CNN still indicates that it is imminent, there's always new catastrophies to prove it.
I suppose in 30 to 40 years (or less), Sally and her brother may be selling the property on the beach at the end of the paved road, so that whatever remains of their family will have a few more million dollars and will be able to pioneer. Or maybe Sally and her brother will be the end of the line for this family. Either way, it's clear that without Watchtower's influence, they probably would have worked a little harder and used their land better or ran a business or at the very least, had families of their own to pass this family land to and keep it in the family for many more generations to come. Their dead siblings may have gotten enough education to realize they needed better healthcare and maybe they would have had children. What a wasted bunch of lives. At least Mr. and Mrs. Smith are not selling the land to donate all the money to Watchtower. At least they think they already worked hard enough for Watchtower to earn their way into paradise instead of buying their way in.