Following up on yesterday's post about increasing problems with processing dead bodies in LA, comes this story about similar recession funerals in New York.
More people are inquiring about the lower-cost options, said Joshua Slocum, director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit watchdog group. “Home funerals aren’t for everybody, but if there’s not enough money to pay the mortgage, there certainly isn’t enough money to pay for a funeral..."
Perhaps the recession will power up the preexisting home funeral movement. Compare this with how the economic crisis is driving on the local food movement.
Some of the designs are getting creative. For example, this dual-function unit, which is just awesome:
Mr. Lakin, a woodworker, makes coffins specifically for home funerals. Ranging in price from $480 to $1,200, they double as bookcases, entertainment centers and coffee tables until they need to be used.
That article also offers this charming comparison, after speaking of "death midwives":
Advocates say the number of home funerals, where everything from caring for the dead to the visiting hours to the building of the coffin is done at home, has soared in the last five years, putting the funerals “where home births were 30 years ago,” according to Chuck Lakin, a home funeral proponent and coffin builder in Waterville, Me.
(via Planet Money)
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