One possibility…?

by careful 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  careful

  Tornintwo's recent topic spurred me finally to post an idea I've been thinking about. I don't see the GB as being financially greedy. Yes, they enjoy numerous perks like having their physical needs met by servants, jetting around the planet, living in a greater degree of comfort than fellow bethelites, getting frequent and sometimes expensive gifts from the R&F, etc. Tornintwo's comment that the GB members each work, likely hard in their own eyes, is real. While they run the religion like a corporate business, very problematic in many people's eyes (including mine), they do not act like the wealthy executives in major corporations with multiple homes, grossly flamboyant lifestyles, contacts with powerful politicians, etc.
  
  I realize, on the other hand, that they are pretty dumb, like Vidquin put it in another post here "seven simpletons that have no clue" when it comes to theology or financial matters. Hence an idea that I've been throwing around. What if the GB made a major blunder in investing the millions they have at their disposal? That is, they lost millions in some bad venture that they thought, in their limited abilities, would yield a big return. Wouldn't their reaction in such a case be what we are witnessing? The desperation, the blundering attempts to hide their own stupid actions, the cover ups that they are so used to using that such maneuvers have become institutionalized practice?
  
  So my request is this: does anyone here, possibly with contacts inside the secretive walls of bethel, have any info regarding this suspicion? If not, would anyone with such contacts make request and see if there's any substance to such a speculation?
  
  Thanks in advance.
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  Coded Logic

  I quite agree with the sentiment of this thread. While the GB are a million miles from humility - the one thing they are NOT is wealthy. They have nice accommodations and are well taken care of but they aren't burning through cash on themselves. They don't have private jets they fly around on, mansions they live in, or super expensive restaurants at which they eat.

  Pinky rings and apple watches certainly don't send the right signal when they're telling children to give up their ice cream money. But those are middle class/upper middle class items. Not the hallmarks of millionaires fleecing the flock like some mega Pastors.

  I think it's just a case that they made bad decisions combined with the fact it's hard times for organized religion. Not to mention that they ended up having to redo a lot or work at Warwick which has probably sent them soaring WAY over budget. I wouldn't be surprised if a considerable portion of that 700 million got burned tearing out their bad work, hiring actual contractors to redo the work, and a series of smaller projects they didn't initially intend to do (being able to drain the lake at the push of a button - seriously?)

  You know the Desert God's Modus Operandi: Spare no expense!

  Solomon built the temple and completed it. 15 He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling,and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper. 16 He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.17 The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits[i] long. 18 The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.
  19 He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar. 21 Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold. 22 So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

  
  
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  clarity

  I generally agree with you about gb, .....but they know what they do to all those under their "command" They are evil in my eyes. Yes they no doubt make many stupid blunders ....you can see it in their crazy switching one made up edict to another, moving the "goal" post as it were! Like a bunch of dopey boys making up rules for their club ...no girls allowed either!

  So if their investments are anything like their religious ideas .....they are screwed.

  My opinion is that they are just a front for something else.
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  talesin

  I see these people as business men, who successfully climbed the corporate ladder in their field. *shrugs*

  Like the rest of the corporate world, executives are estimated to be about 20% sociopath (double that of the rest of the population), and I expect that these men are both ruthless and greedy, as are the CEOs of other destructive corporations (big Pharma, Tobacco and Oil, to name a few).

  Remember, this is a publishing company, and like the rest of the publishing world (especially newspapers and periodicals), their business is dying. The internet has forced the WTBTS (TM) to changes its business model. It is most likely bleeding cash all over the place because of this downturn in the publishing world, and the numerous lawsuits and settlements paid out to the victims of their past crimes (imo) involving the protection of child rapists.
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  OnTheWayOut

  They could be simpletons that lost millions. The mentality that it takes money to make money used to go so far as to suggest that investing lots of money was easier and that the stock market was a no-brainer. Then that wasn't so and it was still thought that real estate was a no-brainer.

  It was very simple to gambling at the roulette wheel. When you lose, you double down. Eventually, you will win and make it all back. That sounds great, but it doesn't work out that way unless you have endless money and doubling down had no house-limit. Even then, if you think the odds of "black" coming up on the next spin increases because it was red or green (ZERO and Double ZERO) so many times, you are totally wrong.

  Anyway, they are selling real estate after the great drop of 2008. They could have made a real killing in 2000 on those hot properties. They stayed in print too long. Print is dying. They build new Headquarters instead of just moving to Patterson or Wallkill. They seemed to assume they would be constantly expanding personnel and suddenly switch.
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  The Searcher

  I don't think for a second that the "Magnificent Seven" either have - or are - allowed to make any major decisions which could impact on the Org's financial well-being.

  These men couldn't run a bath, let alone a multi-billion dollar corporation. They're puppets - nothing more.
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  nonjwspouse

  I am still of the firm belief that it is the corporate lawyers that run the show. These individuals have a cash cow of endless litigation to charge for.
  
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  Coded Logic

  nonjwspouse,

  
  

  I've often wondered that too - how much authority do the GB actually have in financial matters? And who really is running the show?

  I can't say for sure but over the past couple of years I've come to suspect that no one is truly in charge. It's just a whole bunch of people following other people following others. But how could we ever know?