Where does the wealth of this worlds religions fit into this picture?
In 1998 the total Revenues received by Religious Institutions in the USA was:
- 76 billion dollars-
This may seem like a lot of money. But compare that to the total of 9 trillion dollars Americans spent on ALL goods and services. (1998)
That 76 billion dollars is equal to only .8% of all that they spent! Not 8% but 1 tenth of 8% = 0.8%
The Watchtower goes to great measure to describe the terrible results to the worlds economy if religion is destroyed. Does anyone really believe that if the consuming public didn't spend that paltry 0.8% on religion that the economy would suffer? Anyone who has the slightest knowledge of economics knows that if people are deprived of spending their money on something that they will either save it or spend it on something else. Is it hard to think of the public adding 76 billion dollars to the 1.2 trillion they are already spending on health care? The whole point here is that a 0.8% item in any budget is no big deal.
Then there is the problem of the mourning ship captains. Most of the money paid out to Religion is local. Religion is primarily a service. Only 10% of the money received by Churches was spent on building and repairs to buildings. 7 billion dollars worth of building materials isn't going to excite the ship captains of the world even if ALL of it were imported.
It is extremely naive to think that Babylon the Great is the Catholic Church or some imaginary World Empire of False Religion. Religion constitutes only a tiny piece of the world's economic activity. Some have suggested that if there were no Christmas people wouldn't buy the things they buy at Christmas. Who thinks up that kind of stuff? Others have said that economically distressed Governments are going to strip Religion of her property. Just what Governments need - more property! Are they going to use it for government buildings. Are they going to sell vacant church property? Who's going to buy it?
