When I was a JW, I practically grew up alongside many Bethelites. I never heard the work at Bethel described as 'easy' much less financially rewarding. You might not be aware that the poor souls who work their do not work for a salary like most of us do. They get paid in the form of an 'allowance' and a few dollars extra for transportation. Though most of their meals are covered for by the organization, this only applies to meals eaten in their dining room as scheduled. Furthermore, you only get breakfast on Sunday, so lunch and dinner is up to the worker or the kindness of the other JWs in the KH. That explains why most Bethelites can be found having lunch and/or dinner at someone's home on Sundays.
As for days off, well, you can forget about that because most Bethelites work on Saturdays. Given these facts, it's understandable that these JWs are not known for spending much time in field service, much less placing tons of magazines like their 'pioneers' do.
Having your own means of transportation while in Bethel is not easy either because you must be able to maintain on it on your own. I imagine they're VERY careful drivers because there is no way they could afford to paya NYC parking ticket on their 'salary'.
For those who decide to leave Bethel, the transition is often difficult because they have to apply the few skills they learned in Bethel (not many unless you were involved in construction or info. technology) to the real world. It's not like you have a pension saved up, or even a 401K so you're basically left on your own - kinda like Adam and Eve.
My experience has been that the majority of the couples that leave are married, and usually the cause is because the wife has an 'illness' which doesn't allow her to work at Bethel. Whatever the illness, I can easily assume that there is damage being caused in the relationship as well. Think about it, how would you and your wife feel about life if you had a job that required you to work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week with little or no time to cultivate your marriage without a stack of JW publications nearby?
It's no wonder that during my time as JW, Bethelite brothers were 'weary' of me at the KH. Here I was, young, not too bad looking, (and since I worked as a web developer I was loaded too) chatting with a hot 20+ year old Bethelite sister who knew nothing about life of romance, much less personal or financial fulfillment. As soon as her overworked-underappreciated hubby saw me from across the KH, he would come shuffling over and say 'honey, we should be leaving now it's getting late'. I would respond with 'need a lift?'. But of course, would a man in his position take a ride from a guy with all the above and a sports car to boot? Fine, I would hop in my ride and drive off, while this couple would take a ride from someone else instead.
This may sound far fetched, but, remember that living in NYC the way Bethelites do is HUMBLING in every sense of the word. As spiritual as they feel they might be, being in NYC has a way of making them feel like there's more to life than packing books in a factory.
