Funeral Costs In The 21st Century

Facing Poverty from Funeral Costs in the 21st Century
Each day many Americans are beginning find themselves face-down in poverty after a loved one passes due to the high expenses of funeral services. Due to the inflation of money supply, prices are rising in all industries, while many people argue the price of many funeral industries it begins to put a bad name on their company (Boring). There are many funeral directors who try to steer families into a more affordable alternative if they have no money for a funeral (Williams). Although those within the funeral industry would argue that they should be able to set their prices and policies as any other business, funeral costs are too high for many families to manage and the government, life
insurance companies, and funeral operators should make adjustments to current policies to accommodate for the impoverished.
The funeral industry emerged in the aftermath of the Civil War. It began with embalming the fallen soldiers. During and after the war, embalming became acceptable to many Americans that wanted to have one last look at their loved ones(Farrel). Many more undertakers began to experiment “embalming” after the war was over, by the end of the 20th century, embalming became a necessary practice for many parts of the country. Citizens who owned furniture industries often began to focus on the production of coffins for the embalmed individuals, until the early 1950’s, there were over 700 companies making caskets in the US. The death of Abraham Lincoln sparked the rise of the funeral industry by transporting his dead body from Washington to Springfield, Illinois for burial. The nation wanted to see his dead body, but it was not easy to keep a corpse presentable during this time, until Thomas Holmes, known as one of the founding fathers of the funeral industry and “The Father of American Embalming”, thought that their way of embalming was too harsh because they used chemicals like arsenic and mercury(Farrel). Holmes began to experiment arterial embalming, filling the arteries with preservatives like alcohol and flushing the blood out of the
corpse, the same way that morticians do today. Instead of undertakers traveling to homes to prepare bodies for embalming, they began to transport corpse from homes, to hospitals, to funeral homes(Farrel). Thereafter, the funeral industry slowly emerged as a powerhouse that revolved around the embalmed visible body, there began to grow large amounts of funeral homes across the US. The very first mortuary in the US opened in Philadelphia in 1777, now there are over 22,000 widely spread across the country (Farrel). Each day many families seem to find themselves in debt, or not be able to afford mortuaries, and funeral services. In 2014 Quaker Social Action (QSA) fair funerals campaign, formed the Funeral Poverty Alliance. Funeral Poverty Alliance also known as the “FPA”, are a network of not-for-profit organisations to campaign collectively against funeral poverty. The cost of dying is rising 7x faster than the cost of living, according to the QSA. The average funeral cost in 2014 was 7,000$ (Marsden). The most expensive part of the funeral is the casket, which on average has a markup of 20% from wholesale to retail, but sometimes is much higher (Boring). Many people that can not afford them are demanding lowers cost. According to a report by Mutual Pensions company in Royal London, more than 20% of those surveyed had taken on debt to pay for a loved one’s funeral (Isaac). Many people wonder why the prices have risen increasingly, most critics attack modern American funeral traditions for their high cost. Funeral operated stores sell various types of caskets, which compete with other funeral operators on selling theirs.
By many decades in the 20th century different races/religions had their own funeral directors to take care of their dead because of the various high prices on funerals. Although many funeral homes are still small family owned operated companies, who work hard for their money, many Americans are deciding to do cremation because of the lower prices it has to offer(Farrel). The Funeral Industry is already starting to see declining profits as the cost of funeral cases are decreasing, because more families choose cremation, the average cost of cremation according to Cremation Association of North America is 1,650$ including a memorial service(Williams). Funeral Poverty has been creeping up on more and more families as they have fallen upon hardship, or are struggling just to put food on the table(Marsden). These problems can be fixed` by recognizing that funerals can be expensive and many people struggle with the cost, because the cost of one’s ability to pay for a funeral has increased by 50% in the past 5 years and affects one in seven individuals.
These problems have slowly gotten better over the years throughout many funeral campaigns.
Heather Kennedy, funeral poverty officer, said: “We’ve learned the value of looking beyond these obvious allegiances and building relationships across traditional political divides. The campaign has succeeded when we’ve been able to communicate with funeral poverty”. If your on certain benefits you might qualify for a “Social fund funeral payment”, but only covers 35% of a basic funeral. If you’re in just low paid work you will not receive any benefits from any form of government towards funeral cost(Kennedy). Considering there is so much green space in the US, there should be natural burial at a very low cost from the government, this space takes over more than thousands of free space widely spread throughout the country(WIlliams). The government should cover at least ½ of the funeral if the family is on special medicaid and obviously can not afford a proper burial(Kennedy). As one suffering from this devastation some ideas for preparing for these circumstances could be that if there’s time, try to prepay some funeral expenses unless death occurs unexpectedly, others could not claim a body if you desperately have no money, and it be taken care of by the state or government, or before death if you have no money a considerable thought would be to donate the body to science(Kennedy). Funeral operators should make their most affordable package visible to the public including third party
costs, and charge clear prices for goods and services so people know what they’re buying, this becomes a problem when funeral directors have to make their money for their families, but also can not look past the uprising problems faced throughout many American individuals.
Each day, people all around the country are fighting to put food on the table for their family, and when a loved one passes they tend to find themselves face down with no money at all to put towards a funeral. These problems occur every day and the government has still done nothing about it. From here out the citizens of the country need to help start an awareness for families in this time of need. The government should take precaution to such a needful matter and help notify any individual that is suffering from this tragedy that they are not alone, that they will be helped by some form of government other than just a fair funeral campaign. Fighting to get low income families rights to have a percentage of their funeral paid, citizens should raise more of an awareness throughout their community for people living in poverty. Providing food, clothes, and a home for kids these days is a desperate matter all around the world, burying a loved one creates a whole new problem when dealing with the benefits such as medicaid, and food stamps. Awareness will be raised to help any in need, to fight the high cost of funeral prices and overcome the poverty faced by many Americans around the world.