Sir, I am not well versed on real estate but I can imagine all that you say coming true. They already use this model in their management of the assembly halls. The locals pay for the facility in the first place, and then pay inflated rent in the form of expenses for their one day gatherings. I have heard a range of $8-15,000 a day, depending upon the location. With no debt service on the building and all volunteer labor for its maintenance, it's doubtful that it costs a million bucks a year or more to upkeep one of those places. So yes, I think it would be very enticing for them to adopt that model in relation to their kingdom halls.
Socrateswannabe
JoinedPosts by Socrateswannabe
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12
Will the WTS follow the McDonald's corporate model?
by sir82 inas most people know, mcdonald's derives the principal part of its earnings, not from greasy food, but from real estate.. they buy property, then, in addition to charging franchisees for the right to use their name, they charge them rent for the building sitting on corporately-owned real estate.. this business model yields well over $20 billion per year in gross revenue.. could this be the idea behind the soon-to-come revamp of the rbcs into ldcs?
the wts will purchase property and charge its "franchisees" (the congregations) a fee to use the building on the site?.
of course, it wouldn't be called a "franchise fee" or even "rent", it would be named something like a "voluntary contribution to support kingdom interests" or some such folderol.. any "non-performing" congregations would get shut down and/or merged, and the property sold.
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WTS leader rants against higher education
by hoser inon jw tv.
anthony morris is ranting against higher education.
he is blaming parents for enrolling their kids in college.
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Socrateswannabe
"We will NOT need doctors and lawyers after Armageddon......but we WILL need carpenters, plumbers, and similar construction trades."
So I guess that means they will need plenty of refinery workers in the new world to make the polyvinyl chlorate that goes into PVC plumbing pipe. And foundry workers to pour castings for faucets. Oh, then workers for the steel mills that will produce the steel for that. How will all this be transported around in their new world? By big trucks and trains I suppose. So it looks like they'll need to have auto assembly line workers, mechanics, etc.
Have these guys ever thought this stuff through?
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Giant ship vs Noah's Ark
by Simon intake a look at this giant ship that's been built and imagine if would still be large enough to house all the animals on the planet for an extended period of time.. the ship, with modern materials and tools, would take a single person nearly 8,000 years to complete.
how many more people designed it and supplied the materials?
imagine how many trees would be required and how long it would take to transport them alone.. still think noah's ark is feasible?.
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Socrateswannabe
Thanks Vidiot, I still feel pretty stupid though.
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Giant ship vs Noah's Ark
by Simon intake a look at this giant ship that's been built and imagine if would still be large enough to house all the animals on the planet for an extended period of time.. the ship, with modern materials and tools, would take a single person nearly 8,000 years to complete.
how many more people designed it and supplied the materials?
imagine how many trees would be required and how long it would take to transport them alone.. still think noah's ark is feasible?.
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Socrateswannabe
This is the issue that started me down the road toward learning TTAT.
A ship the size of Noah's ark could never have fit all the animals that the bible says it did and could not have contained all the types of food and environmental requirements of the divers animals said to be onboard. Realistically for this feat to have been accomplished, the ark would have had to be the size of a small town. So yes, Simon, I agree that even the Peter Schelte would be too small.
More research proved to me that a family of eight people could not have built even the undersized vessel that the bible describes. The amount of material needed would have required an army of workers given the tools and raw materials available to them at that time. Let's say that Noah and his family defied all odds and actually did build it themselves, it wouldn't have mattered because the ark wouldn't have floated, or it would not have stayed afloat. Ships the size of the ark didn't appear until modern times because it takes a steel superstructure for the vessel to be seaworthy. A wood keel and superstructure would have folded like a house of cards under the pressure of the flood. Further, wood degenerates so that by the time Noah finished building the ark, most of what he had built would have rotted in the interim.
This story always seemed fishy to me but I'm ashamed that it took me years to see it for what it is, a complete sham.
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I need an answer from an Elder or someone who knows!
by Truth and Justice inmy brother after so many years decides to call me.
i am totally surprised.
i didn't know what to think.. so i began to open up by saying "hey ______, what a surprise!
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Socrateswannabe
Truth and Justice:
You state that your brother is an elder. Elders have special dispensation to speak to disfellowshipped persons. That doesn't include social contact, but elders are even required to, once a year, contact disfellowshipped persons who were once associated with their congregation to ask if they're ready to take steps to come back to the fold. It sounds like your conversation with your brother was more of a social call, but he can probably justify it under the existing rules. I guess WTS thinks that elders are better able to resist the siren call of apostates and disfellowshipped ones than the rank and file are.
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A few verbatim quotes from Anthony Morris' talk during the Branch Visit.
by Open mind inhaven't contributed much here in a while.
it's not modest and it's certainly not sound of mind.
you be spiritual man enough to tell these young fellows 'you don't go out in the ministry looking like that.
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Socrateswannabe
" And this is a fact, the homosexuals that are designing these clothes, they like you in tight pants."
#1 most stupid comment of the event! The idea that an entire industry could be motivated by something so sopohmoric shows that these guys don't live in the real world. Designers of men's fashion--male, female, gay, or straight--do what they do, 1.) To exercise their creative talents, 2.) To become famous and popular, and 3.) To remove a good deal of money from your wallet. Certainly not to get some homoerotic thrill from seeing you in one of their skimpy creations. If Morris' statement was true, how about the gay male designers who design scanty and revealing dresses for women? What is the rationale for that, since I guess they aren't particularly interested in seeing them semi nude?
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US Zone visit: disappointing, depressing, discouraging
by sir82 ini will have plenty of "snark" to post later on, but please indulge me while i get this out of my system..... suppose you are the leaders...yes, the leaders...there are only 7 of you...for the one true religion in all the universe.. jehovah the god of the whole universe speaks to you, you alone, out of 7 billion+ people on teh planet.. you have an opportunity, thanks to the advancements in technology, to speak to 750,000 of your followers "live", and another 750,000 or so within 24 hours.. 1.5 million people!
hanging on your every word!.
this is the first time in history you can simultaneously, or nearly simultaneously, address so many of your adherents.. what message are you going to present for this special occasion?.
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Socrateswannabe
Sir82, I had the same thoughts as you about this video event but I could not have put it as eloquently, so thank you for posting your impressions. What a missed opportunity for these guys. If they could think of nothing meaningful to say (and the JWs were expecting that they would), at least they could have been encouraging. Instead, they came across as petty and demeaning. Why broadcast a spanking (or Spanxing?) of a few errant Bethelites to a million plus people? Even if their gripes against the Bethel family were legitimate, you deal with that kind of stuff one on one or within in the family. For the life of me I can't understand why these would be the major topics of a 3 hour meeting that was broadcast to over a million people who are not Bethelites. With all this technology that they're into, I thought maybe the Watchtower hierarchy had gotten a little more hip and sophisticated, but alas, not at all.
The JWs in our congregation ate it up, though.
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Rationale for international conventions
by Socrateswannabe init's been kicked around already that the conventions were logistically disasterous and spiritually vapid.
my question, and i hope you will add your comments to mine, is: why?
why did the wtbs go through the trouble of putting these things on?
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Socrateswannabe
It's been kicked around already that the conventions were logistically disasterous and spiritually vapid. My question, and I hope you will add your comments to mine, is: WHY? Why did the WTBS go through the trouble of putting these things on? We were told that our convention was 2 years in the making. So 2 years of blood, sweat, and tears for what? For the brothers? To encourage us? To feed us spiritually? No way! My guess is that these things are elaborate publicity stunts. They are attention getters. They attract the media. Somehow the GB goobers think this is a positive thing. I have a feeling the truth is that people who live in the convention cities have a markedly lower opinion of JWs, post-convention, than they had beforehand.
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183
What are your favourite movie lines/quotes????
by karter in''well there's one thing you got ta ask yourself punk....you felling lucky...well do ya punk".....clint eastwood dirty harry.. "it's life jim but not as we know it" capt kirk star treck..
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Socrateswannabe
Marina, glad you liked it! I've been running that quote through my head for what...about 50 years...and I've never failed to laugh each time I think of it!
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183
What are your favourite movie lines/quotes????
by karter in''well there's one thing you got ta ask yourself punk....you felling lucky...well do ya punk".....clint eastwood dirty harry.. "it's life jim but not as we know it" capt kirk star treck..
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Socrateswannabe
Put...ze candle...back! ~ Young Frankenstein
You leave me little notes on my pillow. I told you a hundred-and-sixty-eight times I can't .. stand .. little notes on my pillow! 'We are all out of Corn Flakes. -F.U.' It took me three hours to figure out that 'F.U.' was Felix Unger! ~ The Odd Couple