skeeter
My understanding is different than yours, TanDL. The 10% tithe is sent to Salt Lake. It is used primarily for spreading the faith – building churches throughout the world and paying for the costs associated with missions. It is also used to pay for BYU (tuition is insanely cheap for Mormons because the church pays most of the costs instead of the students.)
That being said – the Mormon church does look after its members. But my experience has been it pushes self-reliance very strongly. Poor members are helped – but it is under limited circumstances and for a very limited amount of time while the member is highly, highly encouraged to become self-reliant.
Of course – we will never really know where the tithes go. The church is exceptionally tight-lipped about its finances.