The Business of Death

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Around the world, every day, every hour, every second, medical treatment is unable to prevent death. When doctors, nurses and hospitals can do no more for a patient, another industry steps in.

World Death Rate: ~2 people die each second.

Traditional Western Customs:
The two most common methods for the disposal of corpses are:

  • Cremation (Burning the body) or
  • Interment (Burying the body)
  • Today, the average North American traditional funeral costs between $7,000 and $10,000.
  • Fee for the funeral director’s services: $1,500
  • Cost for a casket: $2,300
  • Embalming: $500
  • Cost for using the funeral home for the actual funeral service: $500
  • Cost of a grave site: $1,000
  • Cost to dig the grave: $600
  • Cost of a grave liner or outer burial container: $1,000
  • Cost of a headstone: $1,500

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But what about other methods? My all-time favorite is “sky burials”…no, not space shuttle burials. This:

The traditional Tibetan Sky Burial involves a corpse being dismembered by trained professionals and left outside (in one of the 1075 sky burial sites) for animals to feast upon.

Today, 80% of Tibetans choose to have Sky Burials.

Then, too, there is the monetary value of your body:

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Personally, I am sticking to a nice, lonely crypt with a lock on the inside, separate enclosure for my phylacteries, and an assortment of undead guards and tomb traps.

Fair warning.

Via BestMedicalDegrees.com for the full infographic.

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I design video games for a living, write fiction, political theory and poetry for personal amusement, and train regularly in Western European 16th century swordwork. On frequent occasion I have been known to hunt for and explore abandoned graveyards, train tunnels and other interesting places wherever I may find them, but there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that I am preparing to set off a zombie apocalypse. Nothing that will stand up in court, at least. I use paranthesis with distressing frequency, have a deep passion for history, anthropology and sociological theory, and really, really, really hate mayonnaise. But I wash my hands after the writing. Promise.

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