The Debt of Dying

     Have you seen the commercials on TV that tell you the average funeral costs over $7,000? And that the government will only provide you with up to $255 to cover the cost? The actual cost of a funeral today in the United States will run the average family anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000! Who would have thought that in this day and age you would incur debt simply through the act of dying. Yes, when you die, you incur this debt, and you pass it on to the surviving members of your family. 

     It didn't used to be this way though. In the past, when a person died, their bodies were prepared by family members and others in the community and you were buried in a homemade coffin in a family plot. If there was a wake, or showing of the body, it was done in the parlor of the deceased persons home. This all pretty much started changing when the Civil War came along in the 1860's. So many men were dying far from home, and families wanted them to be buried nearby. This is when the practice of embalming started, to preserve the deceased for the long trip home by railroad. At this time, morticians started taking over the task of preparing bodies and arranging for funeral services. While this is admirable, and in most cases preferable during a stressful time for survivors, it has unfortunately become "big business". People are literally dying to give them the business! Since then, funeral directors have changed their status from "tradesman" to "professionals" and have helped through lobbying to justify what they do as a public health concern. Embalming is no more necessary than having a $3,000 casket made with inlaid pearl. Actually, embalming is even one of the least costly parts of a funeral, it generally only costs about $600 to be embalmed. The true expense of funerals today is all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding the event, as well as the accompanying bureaucratic red-tape.     

     They say that the only things that are certain in this world are death and taxes, while you may have to worry about your taxes, you shouldn't have to worry about the what it's going to cost you or your family when you die.