HW 55

It seems as if the funeral business has boomed without any questions to the practices we follow. It is quite obvious why the funeral business is so profitable. People die and people mourn, what better way to mourn then have a ceremony honoring a loved one who passed away. It seems very simple and straight forward, on the surface there isn't much to question. However, the more we explore, the more corruption is found. Our common practices our quite questionable when truly explored. The two most common practices to care for the dead are burial and cremation. Cremation is on the rise due to a few different factors, one of the most significant being it is much more economical then a burial. There are many different factors that go in to picking the type of care for ones family. However, there are also many option that one can choose from. Why is it that the overwhelming population chose a traditional burial. The average american funeral costs approximately 7000 dollars. So why is it that we are so attracted to this option. It is social influence that has caused this. After so many years of burials being the common practice, there have been more and more ways to exploit those paying for a burial and therefore even though it is such an expensive option it has stayed as the most common. So what is reason behind the most common practice being the least economical. As is true with much else in our society, profit is the incentive.


The inevitabliity of death traps people in to being in an easily exploitable situation. It is a very profitable equation: Inevitable fact of life(that being death), very emotional family members who are looking to care for loved dead ones, and funeral industry who is there to help those care for dead loved ones while reaping the economic benefits of their expertise in the field. We live in a society in which convienience is highly valued. This is why a burial is so common in our society. For a family looking to mourn and celebrate the life of a loved one who passed away it is much simpler to pay someone to handle all the aspects of such ceremonies rather then dealing with it themselves. When one takes into account the emotional impact of such an event as death it is understandable why the family would been even more inclined to pay someone to deal with all the technicalities and execution of having a competent funeral.

The situation that a mourning family is in is so easily exploitable and that is exactly what happens very often. This is not to say funeral directors do not have good intentions or are bad people at all. However, the basis of a successful business is profit and the easiest way to profit is to exploit. This is why funeral directors charge for every single action needed in having a traditional funeral for somebody. We are country based upon private business and profit motive. With every major institution corruption is evident; beneath that corruption there lies profit or something related to profit as the incentive for this corruption. We can change our daily lives, we can choose to follows certain social norms or not. However, until a systematic change is in place the same incentive will keep corrupting and exploiting everything it has a chance to.