"We all got it comin' kid."
November 9, 2007 7:15 AM   Subscribe

Business of Death "...the modern funeral has evolved into an economic and cultural monster, with a vast network of supporting industries and myriad options for your earthly remains." [via]
Each year, 22,500 cemetaries across the United States bury approximately:
  • 30 million board feet of hardwoods
  • 104,272 tons of steel
  • 2,700 tons of copper and bronze
  • 1,636,000 tons of reinforces concrete
  • 872,060 tons of embalming fluid
Music by Violens
posted by kirkaracha (9 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: The animation here is the first link in this recent post. -- cortex



 
See also.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:28 AM on November 9, 2007


I should use that as the title for something...
posted by Artw at 7:33 AM on November 9, 2007


I once heard that in my state, caskets have to be buried in a gravel pit lined with a plastic sheet- this, along with embalming techniques, supposedly maintains the cadaver intact as they appeared at burial for 60 years or something like that. I think they do this because of the possible need to exhume someone for a criminal investigation or something like that. It strikes me as highly unnatural and disrespectful to keep a corpse from becoming a part of nature as it should for so long...does anybody know if this information is correct or not?
posted by baphomet at 7:43 AM on November 9, 2007


So when the apocalypse comes, scavengers will mine cemeteries for metal. Someone should work that detail into a movie or something.

Also, spellcheck says it's "cemeteries," which looks weird for some reason.
posted by jedicus at 7:43 AM on November 9, 2007


Jessica Mitford's brilliantly mordant journalism "The American Way of Death" (1963) remains as fresh as this morning's corpse.

(Post bagged for later; looks brilliant - thanks!)
posted by Jody Tresidder at 8:01 AM on November 9, 2007


Thanks for link to the band! I'm usually all about "moar moribuhTEE!" but the music stole the show.
posted by katillathehun at 8:02 AM on November 9, 2007


Um. That should say "morbiduhTEE" but my keyboard ate some letters and turned some around and... you know.
posted by katillathehun at 8:03 AM on November 9, 2007


I doubt that any state requires embalmbing. Though the death industry seems so outrageous to many hip readers of this and similar sites, so much of all things we do in our society is senseless, expensive, overdone, not necessary etc. and yet people do choose to buy, use, embrace such things. If my granny wants a funeral with all the trimmings and an expensive casket etc, should I deny her this because of some insights I posess as a high slchool graduate?
posted by Postroad at 8:23 AM on November 9, 2007


This prolly shoulda been added to that older post.
posted by briank at 8:26 AM on November 9, 2007


« Older Math classes with a cause.   |   Gallup poll, Bush worse than Nixon Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments