What is the watchtower going to do when

pepperheart

What is the watchtower going to do when the money runs out ???

Simon

Why do you think the money is going to run out?

never a jw

Don't worry, everyone in this forum will be long dead by then

pontoon

Wat corporation is a money making machine, not gonna run out of money

oppostate

First they would have to run out of loyal /contributing publishers and then run out of properties to sell, and that could take a while.

berrygerry

The 2019 Yearbook will speak to this answer.

If 2018 follows 2017, then there will be no growth in the west. Based on reported baptism numbers so far, that looks to be the case.

2019 should show about a .5% decline in the west.

If true, they will run out of money - it will only be a matter of time.

I am one who thinks they do have significant money problems. They definitely did when Lett famously said they had more going out then in. Laying off a lot of bethelites might have stemmed the losses, and time will tell whether it is too little too late. The behaviour of Watchtower does suggest an organisation suffering tight financial constraints, with it selling halls and facilities, consolidating printing and reducing or eliminating what is being printed.

A while ago, I went through the Britain accounts in detail. I never got the chance to write a thread on it, and it is a complicated topic, but they show a large increase in donations and more money going offshore. Australian accounts show the same, and from memory the Canadian ones do as well. That might all sound healthy, until you realise that the donors are the congregations, not individuals.

Just to explain that further, from the UK figures, (from memory now), I calculated that the Britain branch (IBSA and WTBTS combined) were effectively getting £50 per publisher per month, in donations. But I doubt that if you look at the published figures for individual congregations, you would get close to that amount. If someone were to go through the accounts of each individual congregation and see how much they received in donations from individuals, and add that all up (a task far too big for me), you should be able to determine the real rate that Watchtower is losing money in Britain. That loss is being covered by raiding congregation accounts and selling assets, for the time being, but they can't do that forever.

The same issue is probably occurring in all the other wealthier "lands".

That former circuit overseer recently on reddit confirmed that his Central American branch was subsidised and couldn't pay its way, and needed $6 million in subsidy p.a. If branches there can't pay their way, then there is little hope of any African branch paying its way.

I don't think that there is an imminent financial collapse, but I do think that it is a much bigger problem for Watchtower than decline in membership.

LV101

The decline in the west has been a long time coming! I guess they could crash and burn but it seems unlikely -- I hope you're right berrygerry.

Crazyguy

They robbed all the congregations and now are selling off most of their assets. I think this was done for two reasons , the major down turn in the economy and to hide money from the lawyers. Now their in protection mode as well as bracing for the impending downturn in their numbers. In reality the numbers before they went negative were a false sense of growth for them because I don't think they thought about the fact that most of their growth in the last 20 years was from third world countries. In the end this company has always been about making money not their followers.

The good news is they will collapse, people aren't joining anymore and the kids are still going away. They will out of desperation make it difficult for ones to leave and they continue to push for kids to get baptized and then blackmailed into staying but this in the end will make it worse for the cult and even more will leave. The end is near, the end is near, maybe not in my life time but the end is near , for them.