How many legs left on the Watchtower Stool?

by besty 10 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  besty

  I would suggest they are built on 3 legs:

  1- Print publications

  2 - Real estate

  3 - Donations/wills

  I would say the Internet has destroyed (1) print as a viable business model - particularly when there is no advertiser funding. (See skinny mags and move online for details)

  (2) Real estate is going strong but the branch consolidation and move upstate indicates the 20 year view is not optimistic

  As the elderly lower midddle wealth group Western cadre die off (3) donations does not look sustainable either.

  My guess is the WTS are stockpiling cash from real estate to fund an investment-based financial returns model, supplemented by RBC circuit ass-halls and KH refurb and flips.

  Any signiifcant strategic shift in these 3 areas is worth noting.

  Thoughts?
• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  -

  “…to fund an investment-based financial returns model…”

  That’s been my suspicion for years. Since Watchtower’s cashflow was decimated by February 1990’s introduction of the “complete donation arrangement,” the organization has found novel ways and means of siphoning cash from the JW community.

  Watchtower has since constructed a cashflow that’s far more diverse and sophisticated. It is, in essence, going in the direction you say above. I’d go so far to say the higher-ups are probably attempting to establish diverse sets of financial foundations around the globe to protect and grow assets so that one day (if they’re not already there!!!) any outside cash in the way of donations would be gravy. But, hey, any good business welcomes cash that doesn’t land it's leadership in jail. So I suspect donations will forever be welcomed, but less and less essential to maintaining the Watchtower religion business.

  Marvin Shilmer
• 

  sir82

  Yes, absolutely, they'd be foolish not to put their hundreds of millions, if not billions, in some sort of investment strategy.

  My hunch is, if the rank & file ever found out just exactly how wealthy the WTS is, it would cause for more "stumbling" than nearly any other issue.

  I.e., why stockpile and invest $millions now, if Armageddon is coming "very soon"? Especially when the steady drumbeat for decades has been "simplify your life, don't plan for the future, rely on Jehovah".
• 

  Oubliette

  WT Stool:

  

  No legs here!
• 

  Vidiot

  Three legs, still.

  Termites in all of 'em, though.

  Still think we'll see the DC cut down to two days and held in assembly halls before too long (in part, due to all three).
• 

  Vidiot

  sir82 - "Why stockpile and invest $millions now, if Armageddon is coming 'very soon'? Especially when the steady drumbeat for decades has been 'simplify your life, don't plan for the future, rely on Jehovah'."

  Certainly puts the lie to the notion of immanent catastrophe.
• 

  Ucantnome

  thats an interesting chart
• 

  Adventurousone

  Love the chart it explains it well. No legs here, thats good.
• 

  Splash

  The WT stool has only one leg.

  Unfortuately it's pointing upwards and the dubbies have to take turns sitting on it.

  Splash
• 

  prologos

  a 3 legged stool can never wobble 3 points are always in a plane (euclid)

  so one leg can be seriously shortened and still be stable, but

  any stool can topple. if the occupant shifts off center too much,

  hence the fears of aPOSTEes, the posterior not on the stool any more, off base.

  WT counts on its

  ASS sets on/in the stool.