ILove2Lurk,
Here's the rest of my "Take" re: your earlier post. This is just my opinion and "educated guess" and conjecture.
However, in normal commercial businesses in the world there's a purpose for all the pressure and greed: someone(s) get rich. Real rich. Millions and billions rich. Whether it's CEOs, partners, employees. shareholders, etc.
I don't see this happening in the COS though, unless I'm missing something extraordinary. The only people that might be getting personally rich in all of this is maybe DM, though it's not really easily provable, and then a bunch of lawyers and PIs, maybe.
DM may not actually pocket in his name a ton of dough but he controls hundreds upon hundreds of millions of $. He lives in luxury (particularly when compared to his subordinate legions), eats the finest foods, wear’s tailor made cloths, etc, etc just as El Ron did. I would guess from what I read that there are a few others, off and on at the “top”, that get to participate in some “scraps” doled out for the sake of camouflaging DM’s obscene consumption, as well.
Big time execs and corporate big shots do much the same thing and the business folks do love making tons of dough for the most part. However, they also love the power and the thrill of “living large” and being “in the loop”, so to speak. However, there are some that are very passionate about what they do such as self made entrepreneurs and some are most generous and altruistic.
And, let’s not forget the politicians.
If anything, the COS seems like an automatic machine that's been set up to gather money on one end and waste it on the other. Sorta mulching money like a tree trimming machine out into the air. When it's just easy to get (donations with no exchange), it's real easy to waste and toss around.
A most apropos analogy.
I’ve told a few El Ron stories about $ I saw him waste frivolously but, overall, Hisself was more a hoarder and expensive, custom toy consumer and self indulger. El Ron also loved owning big toys…like St. Hill Manor and the Apollo. DM is, IMO, somewhat cut from the same cloth but he doesn’t have to “lay low” like Hisself did.
Yes, Scn does do some really stupid stuff with some of the money but--at least when I was near the “top” and from what I can see from the periphery now--the amount blown away in the breeze is a pittance compared to what is routinely rat-holed.
Without tax exemption and virtual slave labor staff, Scn wouldn’t have the dough to waste and rat-hole and would have to change its business model completely or fold. If Scn provided its’ personnel the pay, berthing, food, training, medical and benefits package that the US Military does it would probably take at least $75 million a year to cover that. Add in all the various forms of taxes (especially property) and then complying to all the workplace and other laws Scn skirts around you’re looking at around $100 million minimum just to have the lights on and the staff sitting at their desks.
Staff get the mostess and biggest “warm and fuzzies”, bonuses and perks when they make dough that oils the “machine”. Being a money maker in the SO makes one several cuts above one's fellow crew and “special”. If a highly trained auditor or C/S blows the org is shocked. If a big money making reg or exec blows it’s a catastrophe. Staff have been indoctrinated--subtly and indirectly--that having tons of dough in Reserves is “vital” to the “guarantee” that Scn and the "Bridge" is safe, secure and will always be there.
Same goes with the Hubbard estate. Where did all that go? Doesn't seem like the family got enough to talk about. If it all went to build the caves to store the engraved steel plates, well today there's much more affordable solutions to store digital data nearly forever.
The family got stiffed. El Ron’s Estate was considerable and well in excess of what the “Archives” project probably cost…the project was also done with virtual slave labor. The reason it was done the way it was done was because there were very specific El Ron Orders on how it was to be done. I would also guess that most of the dough that went into the Archives project was “new” money. It is more a “monument” and “mausoleum” than a cost effective storage system. It is also probably due to some Space Opera delusions that El Ron was playing out.
When El Ron died the lion’s share of the dough (well over a hundred million $) Hisself controlled was in Sea Org Reserves and DM et al took over control of that. Where that money is today (and it has been added to considerably since then) and what is being done with it is anybody’s guess. I seriously doubt that all that loot is in one big pile somewhere, snoozing.
In which case, all the work that went into amassing the small personal fortune was for naught in the end. Nothing came of it as far as I can see. Just frittered away maybe. Did it go back into the SO reserves, the war chest?
And, so it often is with corporeal wealth. However, it also depends upon the perspective as to whether or not it was all for naught. El Ron’s “wealth” was not just the money he personally held or what he personally controlled. To Hisself--and some other wealthy folks--their “Legacy” is part of their “Immortal Identity”. Without El Ron’s misrepresented, fabricated and fallacious “Legacy” Scn has got bupkis and they know that. But, so it is with many guru persona based pseudo-religions…and actual religions for that matter.
Where would Christianity be without the “Immaculate Conception”, “Lazarus” and the “Resurrection”? Same goes for Judaism, Islam, Hindu, etc, etc. When my parents were trying to beat the “Love of Jesus” into me, I realized that if Jesus returned today he would revolted by what has been done in His name and would forthwith be escorted out of just about any “Christian” church He walked in to. Big mistake when I told my parents my “realization” about Jesus.
Scn has spent and spends a lot of dough implementing and maintaining El Ron’s explicit instructions on “preserving” and promoting Hisself’s “Legacy”. It’s Scn’s “Story of Jesus” and, from Hisself’s perspective--and Scn’s--well worth the dough…even though much of the world snickers and knows the real story.
El Ron’s personal largess and “Fair Market” Net Worth at the time of Hisself’s death was assuredly in excess of what “the books” showed. In today’s Dollars it was most likely in the range of $100 Million…more than a “small personal fortune”, IMO. Hisself was,
functionally, probably one of the 1,000 wealthiest people in the world in 1986...as is DM in 2011.
I guess I don't understand the ongoing motivation to keep amassing money here. In the real world, someone benefits directly and there's the daily motivation.
IMO, the motivation for most Scns is not the same motivation as the folks at the top in the “Inner Circle”. Over time, as I went from “raw meat” in a CL IV Org to the “Inner Circle”, it was a steady series of “veils” pulled back and finally one day there I was--standing behind all the smoke and mirrors looking into El Ron’s eyes and realizing that Hisself wasn’t what all the “earthlings” down below were leading each other to believe. There was definitely a “daily motivation” but just what that motivation was depended entirely on where you were and “who or what” you were.
My personal “Gold Standard” is folks like Socrates who lived what he taught; Krishnamurti who called "BS!" and walked away when people started worshipping him; Mahatma Gandhi who taught by how he lived.
Like I said, we have no idea where all the hundreds upon hundreds of millions of $ of “Parishioners Donations” are and what has been and is being done with it. And, thanks to the U.S. Government’s Gestapo Branch (IRS), we’ll probably never know.
Legally, DM shouldn't be able to do this. Inurement.
“Legally”, “Justly”, “Rightfully” and “Fairly” are not all the same thing. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of money can buy a whole lotta “legally” and that’s what, so far, “protects” DM externally. What “protects” DM internally is the myth that he alone holds “the Keys to the Kingdom”, that the “Kingdom” is “real” and that El Ron El Rey stands there in the Majick Boots, waiting to greet they that are “tough enough” to make it there.
Do I have a "blind spot" about all this?
I never got the money angle, either…that’s one of the reasons I walked away.
Can ya help me on this one?
I hope all this helps.
Great post.
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