(That's almost 1 billion per year! In USA alone!!)I just want to clarify this point for you Gerard and for others. Much of that reported Revenue for the N.Y. WT is cash that has been transferred from WT worldwide. Of the two countries outside of the U.S. that I have seen finacials for, it appears they are transferring the bulk of annual revenue to presumably WT in the U.S. In other words, I suspect that this 951 million U.S. denominated dollars is probably an aggregate of worldwide revenues.
They are producing approximately 23 million magazines twice monthly. If I were to assign an amount to estimate the cost of their mags at ten cents per copy (probably an extremely generous amount considering the volunteer labour), that's an expenditure of 2.3 million twice per month or 59.8 million annually. Add to that books, CDs etc of another 40.2 million. Now let's give the 3000 WT employees a $3000.00 (U.S.) per month income (which actually far exceeds what they are actually provided) and you add another 108 million. Now that's 208 million dollars in total. That leaves almost 750 million dollars left over for that year alone !!!!
My point is simple. They critisize the state of the world but apparently hoard massive cash but why? The world is supposed going to end any day now. It doesn't make any sense unless they know that the story of Armageddon soon approaching is a lie. If I were to guess, I would suggest that they hold at least 5 billion in cash or cash equivalents. That could be enough to fund WT for the next 30 years without taking in another single donation from anyone. Why not tell all the JWs worldwide "No more donations please, use the funds to take extra good care of your family and make yourselves comfortable as we wait for Armageddon." ???