OK, I'm not accusing anybody of making Soylent Green

[BlueStreak]

That's all I can think of when they use the phrase "economy of scale" to describe a funeral company that would own 1,653 funeral homes and 515 cemeteries in 48 states. I mean, how much economy of scale do you get digging holes in the ground? But if you can create "derivative products" with a global marketing reach, now we're talking economy of scale. Mmmmmmm. Soylent Green.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/29/us-stewartenterprises-servicecorporation-idUSBRE94S0HP20130529

But I'm not accusing them of anything. I'm just wondering why they really want control over all those bodies.

[TheMadMonk]

1. They don't want the bodies so much as the several thousand...

...dollars that handling each one brings in.

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. One of the oldest and most lucrative rackets for a very long time.

Health insurance is a newcomer in this realm of legally required and largely unregulated industries. Until you encounter it first-hand, you probably have no idea how much they can steal from you with the force of law behind them.

[BlueStreak]

3. And what they have in common is ...

Taking advantage of people at their most vulnerable point when they are in a situation that they cannot do competitive shopping or even take time to make wise decisions.

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. Exactly. You don't even have the choice to refuse because all the other parasites you have to choose

from are going to do the same thing and the option of doing nothing is a crime.

Joseph Heller wrote Catch-22 after facing the reality of immanent death in the nose of a B-25. He realized, as so many of us have, that as long as we are a part of an authoritarian system of absolute power, the best we can hope for is to be overlooked, and even then, as your OP points out, they will get you in the end.

[Fumesucker]

10. There's something to be said for flying under the radar so to speak

The nail that sticks up gets hammered down and unless you're the lead dog the scenery never changes.

[BlueStreak]

11. So your solution is to just not die? I like it.

[Fumesucker]

14. It's worked for me so far

[BlueStreak]

12. Cremation avoids a lot of that

You still have to deal with the mob, but you are buying the minimum services from them in that case.

My plan is cremation and no service. If somebody wants to have a party after I'm gone, that's their business, but it won't be at one of those dismal funeral parlors. And there will be beer.

I've always thought it was really bizarre and morbid to dress up the body and plant it in the ground as if somehow it might come back to life. That always struck me as one of those strange practices that anthropologists discovered some primitive society did 8000 years ago - like shrunken heads on a pole.

[In_The_Wind]

13. +1

[Hekate]

5. The funeral business is very, very lucrative. Therefore, we have already signed up for cremation

Our kids can scatter our ashes on the sea. It's already taken care of.

[HiPointDem]

6. cremation, however, is still part of the funeral business.

[Hekate]

7. Well whatcha gonna do? Somebody has to take care of the remains.

At least this way nobody is going to be pressured into spending upwards of $10,000 apiece to see each of us off. No embalming, no viewing, no buying a coffin with satin lining and fluffy pillow. A nice service at the Unitarian Universalist church, and potluck in Parish Hall afterward for the mourners.

[HiPointDem]

8. i understand, just wanted to make the point that there's no escape unless you off yourself in

the woods & hope the wolves will eat the carcass.

[HiPointDem]

9. body parts & dna? fertilizer? if you look at the orwellian tendency in modern life, there are

lots of possibilities.