Vieraas kirjoitti:
All in all the organisation seems to be moving from printing business into real estate business. This is one thing to take into account when these kinds of deals pop up in the media. Watchtower needs some kind of business model to keep the wheels moving.
Absolutely. When I started to research the Watchtower about a year ago, It became apparent to me pretty soon that the organization has moved through three business models:
1) printing/publishing 1880s ... 1940s
2) faith-based donations pyramide scheme 1940s ... 1990s
3) real-estate flip-flop 2000s ... 2014
We all understand why these phases changed. With the advent of television, radio and library network, people stopped paying good amounts for literature.
Then came the pyramide scheme, but it only works while you have strong growth in developed areas like the US and EU (mainly based on wealthy pensioneers) and the members strongly believe in the thing, i.e. your mind-control is very strong.
Then with the advent of widespread Internet access and English skills, the pyramide stopped to grow and iron grip on members mind control slipped, so the ones that are still in do not donate much and there's no growth either.
To make a congregation of 100 people donate net $100000 takes how much time? 10s of years maybe. But if you deploy 100 "volountary" people on a 2-week building project and if the average salary would be $500 a week, then you will end up with $100000 savings on workforce in just 10 business days. And the subjects would even not have to possess anything, they don't need special skills and they don't even need to stay with the organization for too long.