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Viability of the Scientology Business

Thrak

Gold Meritorious Patron
Another sign of their demise is that there prices have gone straight up and vertical like. They don't have people coming in so they have to get more and more from the people they have to insane proportions. That ain't gonna last.
 
The Protection Racket business model might be the one scientology runs on.

You rat on us, we will cripple you. You cough up yer money or we take your freedom. You stay loyal to the family or we will destroy yours.
Meanwhile you pay and pay and pay.
=we make $
 

idrizomare

Patron with Honors
The Freezone and Indies need a supply of interested people. That supply currently comes from the Church of Scientology, which puts up the marketing expenses to get people to give it a try. Thus all the folks administering the OCA at the tables and the currying of favor with celebrities.

I would imagine that if the CoS stopped attracting new members, from which they manufacture ex-members, that the non-CoS field would dwindle to nothing.

The Freezone/Indie business seems like any other personal care business like say, a hair stylist. Not to demean the tech or what it means to people, but it's still a one-to-one sort of transaction, the rate at which you can do it depends on how many hours a day you can work, and you depend on your personal reputation for repeat business and referrals.

The Church of Scientology currently gets by with vague yet extravagant claims of what they'll do for you. They work hard to shout down unhappy customers and to avoid independent validation of the value of what they produce. When people talk about possible reforms of the Church of Scientology, I wonder how this part is going to work. On the other hand, with the Internet and so many books written, the cat's out of the bag.

The costs that Freeminds suggests (e.g., the Super Power building) don't really exist because the SP building is just another over-subscribed shakedown. CoS doesn't pay any property taxes (at least in the USA). They don't pay staff any appreciable amount of money. They probably don't spend that much on events. Most of the real investments they seem to make are in printing equipment from Bridge Publications.

I'd love to see a breakdown of CoS income and expenses. How much from books? How much from services? (Not much if you believe what you hear.) How much from straight up donations? How much from investments on their cash pool?

On the expense side, how much to keep up their properties? How much to the lawyers? How much for marketing?

It might be that over time they are progressing from being a seller of Scientology services and course work to a publisher and an investment fund. Not such a bad outcome in my view. That endeavor will continue until they run out of money.

On the reputation angle, I think the Church's main damage is that they have a reputation of "crazy" more than a reputation of abuse. The abuses are plainly evident to people paying attention, but most people don't.

Try this experiment: ask people who aren't exes or Scientology followers about their impressions. I predict they know "Scientology" and "Hubbard." Maybe they've heard of Dianetics, but they have no idea what it is. They might know a bit of OT III from the popular media portrayals. That's probably it, though.
 

Mike Laws

Patron Meritorious
Freeminds,

That was a good summary, covered a lot of broad fundamentals that every business must live by.

I personally believe that the COS is financially on its death march now. Yes there is a billion or so cash in IAS, I have recently discovered that there may still be a half to three quarters of a billion dollars in SOR, there is only one trully profitable org ... FSO.

And boy is FSO profitable. I recently spent some time with an ex SO senior exec, who left in the 2000's. I was shocked to hear that the FSO was generating as much as $7.5 million per week in the 90s. FSO FP was only $150,000-200,000 for all its crew, that meant, 20-25 million per months went to int. This is how, despite DM having spent more than $500,000,000 on buildings and his toys at Int, SOR managed to double or tripple since I left in the 80s.

Dallas Ideal Org almost had the power cut off in the last few months. They don't even make enough money to pay the electric bill, much less pay staff. Their electric bill is 5-10 times higher than it was in their old building which they still struggled to pay. The building is asthetically beautiful, but 30,000 square feet much of which is surrounded by 10 foot tall SINGLE PAIN GLASS windows in Dallas, one of the hottest cities in america is both stupid and irrisponsible.

I hear that all ideal orgs are struggling, and their financial situians are deteriorating. Soon, after they drive out the few remaining die hards willing to sacrifice their lives for the greater good, Management will start to have to bail them out. FSOs feed lines, the orgs are drying up. FSO income has already massively dropped since the 90s. soon it won't be able to support management and all orgs internationally.

The ideal orgs are cancer cells that will suck the energy out of the COS which is already dying but doesn't know it.
 

idrizomare

Patron with Honors
I thought the core of the Ideal Org plan is to get the local area to raise funds to buy the building, then give it IAS (or is it Int?). Then lease the building back to the local org and make the locals pay to maintain, heat/cool/light the place.

When the local org fails, try to get them to fund raise again to bail themselves out. Eventually, take back the building. Nearly zero cost to the IAS/Int due to no property taxes. Maybe sell the building, even if at a loss on paper since "they" never spent any money on it. Or perhaps lease it out to businesses.

Are the Ideal Orgs really going to do CoS in?
 

xseaorguk

Patron Meritorious
yeh, the "I deal Org" programme is surely due to many people claiming refunds for services, and the new Orgs are bought from donations to the cause i.e not refundable.

Yesterday there was a documentary about faith healing in the USA.
Reminded me on the $cn cult, but they are obviously not alone in the US.

There are a couple of adds before it starts, but docu starts after a couple mof minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOnc-5Ci6vY
 

Freeminds

Bitter defrocked apostate
... Are the Ideal Orgs really going to do CoS in?

Not as such, but the appearance of an Ideal Org in a city has almost always been followed by a rapid spiral down into insolvency (at the local level), despair and failure that actually leaves the cult with fewer active members than they had before they got the nice building. In effect, ideal orgs presage the end of Scientology in that area.

This doesn't mean that the Ideal Org scam is bad for CofS as a group of businesses. It continues to fill their 'war chest'... but the number of people who try to live according to Hubbardism is certainly declining. I think CofS will run out of relevance (ie public membership) long before Clearwater runs out of money.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Read with interest.
 

xseaorguk

Patron Meritorious
woops

just saw that the link does not work on the site here, but if you click on the top of the clip you can see it at You Tube directly
 

Gadfly

Crusader
If Scientology paid staff "normal wages", that alone might disable the "business model" from succeeding.

But, if the tax advantage were also taken away from public, and especially the "real estate", by removing their religious cloaking, then most surely it could NEVER succeed.

How would their religious recognition and tax status be reviewed, challenged, and changed?

The Supreme Court? Congress? What area of the government would have to be addressed or SUED to make THAT happen?

+++++++++++++
 
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Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
How would their religious recognition and tax status be reviewed and changed?

Someone with clout would have to give enough rats' asses to say the word. Then it would happen, cloaked in whatever apparent means would seem to fit the bill.

Paul
 
ask nozzie

Yes, a butterfly emerges from a cocoon. demonstratable fact. Seen it. Believe it. Has happened many many times, And it is reproduceable.

Now for your alleged " OT " abilities. " OT " is described by Hubbard. The EP of each OT level is described on the Grade Chart, by Hubbard. Now, either you can or can not demonstrate the state of "OT" as defined by Hubbard.

You say you can, so rather than double talk and slip and slide why go collect the one million dollar prize offered by demonstrating what you post here you can do?

Can you do what claim or not?

last autumn my old pal nozzie threw down the gantlet in that regard and as he was an old pal and i was in his debt and properly positioned to do so i took him up on it. and muthuhfukkin blew his fukkin gourd muthuhfukkah. so ask him.

aside from that, "OT" as it is termed in scientologese is not about parlor tricks. and as a judeochristian mage, i move mountains but that isn't about ME!!! it's about the mountains.
 
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