I'm just guesstimating with my figures here, but if they're even close it shows what a tremendous waste of life the watchtower is. Some non jw friends tried to point this out to me many years ago. I wish I listened then.
Time spent in Field service? every year = 1 billion hours = 41,666,666.67 Days = 114,077.12 years
If the average life span of a person is 77 years this works out to 1,481 entire lives wasted every year in field service? alone.
In Ontario the minimum wage is $7.15 per hour. Because they don't pay their door to door magazine sales reps this pittance, they are saving about CAN $297,916,666.67 every year.
Not only do they save all this money on wages, their door to door magazine sales reps are the ones who have to pay for the literature through "voluntary donations". The literature is produced by "volunteer" laborers in factories that were built by "volunteers" using more "voluntary donations" to pay for materials. The "voluntary donations" are not taxable because the company is a "charitable organization". What "charitable work" are the funds used for? They're used to build or renovate factories and sales offices. Are the "voluntary donations" used to cover the expenses of the door to door magazine sales reps? No, these volunteer sales reps cover their own expenses, such as fuel, vehicle maintenance and mileage. They pay for their own uniforms too. Personal injuries sustained in the door to door sales work such as broken arms, legs, knees, dog bites, etc. are the responsibility of the volunteer sales rep. In some parts of the world these volunteer sales reps risk being arrested for going to work.
The purpose of the literature is to recruit more volunteer door to door magazine sales reps.
The 6,000,000 door to door magazine sales reps attend sales meetings 5 hours every week at their own expense. This translates into another 30,000,000 hours = 1,250,000 days = 3,422.31 years = 44 more lives wasted each year.
None of this includes time spent preparing for sales meetings, time spent at company meetings and conventions, etc.
The cost of abuse, death due to company policies on blood, and family breakup is incalculable.
What a terrible waste of lives and resources! I'm almost afraid to calculate what it cost me personally.
Walter