I wonder how this tithe like arrangement will work in really poor countries. Is the head of a household of Zambian subsistence farmers going to be asked how much more of his little plot he can set aside to grow stuff to sell for contribution money? Or is the single mother of the Guatemalan child who raises a chicken, sells it for a dollar, and donates the dollar to the wt, going to have to make a pledge to have her child raise another chicken each year?
I've been to an Asian country where the jws travel to an assembly after saving all year. I heard of a sister who some days didn't even have 50 cents to buy rice for her children. A non jw neighbor or other might give her 50 cents so she and the kids get at least one meal that day. Jws who work 6 days a week and make a dollar a day and live in grass huts. These large extended Asian families living on nothing are discouraged from pooling their resources to send just one son or nephew to a more affluent country to send money back to the family or to school to get a better job to lift the family out of grinding poverty. How TF do they expect these people to make pledges? Or is this arrangement only for developed countries? In that case, not one cent will go to helping an ailing Burmese grandma or giving 50 cents a day so a widow's children can eat.