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Welcome
Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
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Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Equal Rights for Mega Corporate Funeral Chains! |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Friday, 03 February 2006 |
Yes, we all know how the deck is completely stacked against hegemonic corporate interests in this country, while being wildly tilted in favor of mom and pop industries...
Funeral services industry making a killing in Annapolis
By THOMAS FIREY and DAVID HARRINGTON
Originally published February 1, 2006
Funeral services are expensive, as any Marylander who has laid a loved one to rest can affirm. The average funeral cost in the Old Line State was $5,682 in 2002, the last year for which federal data are available.
Funerals also are expensive in other states, but Maryland's costs are much higher than they need to be.
A recent Washington Post exposé revealed that a World War II-era state law that supposedly was enacted to protect consumers from fly-by-night morticians is being used by existing funeral homes to block legitimate competitors from opening shop.
The law is just one of several state regulations that morticians are using to gouge consumers. By comparing Maryland funeral costs with those in states without such anti-competition laws, we calculate that Marylanders pay about $784 more per death on funeral expenses.
Funeral directors couldn't engineer this protection by themselves; they've had help from state lawmakers who have prevented attempts to reform the funeral laws. Few Marylanders are aware that one of Annapolis' more generous political benefactors is the Maryland State Funeral Directors Association. The State Board of Elections campaign finance database reveals that the association's political action committee and individual funeral homes have doled out nearly $246,000 in political contributions since 2000.
With all those dollars flowing from the funeral industry to state politicians, Marylanders should wonder what the money is buying.
People usually think that businesses dislike regulation. But businesses often find it profitable to have regulations crafted to impede would-be competitors. This allows politically well-connected businesses to charge higher prices and manipulate consumers' choices. These shenanigans are known as "rent-seeking."
Rent-seeking is a problem in many states' funeral services industries, but it has become even more galling in recent years because it is offsetting innovations that should be lowering funeral costs.
The advent of direct-to-consumer sales of caskets and other funeral goods threatens to cut out the mortician middlemen who sell those goods at a big markup.
Independent funeral homes are also being threatened by chains that use centralized embalming and better labor management techniques to lower overhead costs. Perhaps most threatening is the increasing popularity of cremation.
Funeral home directors and owners have fought these innovations in many states through rent-seeking. Working with their politician friends, they have defended and strengthened anti-competitive funeral regulations aimed at stemming the tide of Internet casket sales, the expansion of funeral home chains and the popularity of cremations. One of their recent "successes" has been to persuade several states to mandate that crematoriums employ licensed embalmers, even though crematoriums don't need embalmers.
Consumer groups have fought these laws in several states, scoring a few victories via the courts. But Maryland's funeral laws will be harder to reform because they are especially obstructive and are protected by powerful lawmakers.
The Post article gave much of the credit for killing Maryland reforms to Baltimore Del. Hattie N. Harrison, dubbing her the "guardian angel" of the funeral industry.
It shouldn't be surprising that Maryland's funeral laws seem impossible to reform; Annapolis is probably the richest rent-seeking playground of any of the state capitals. From alcohol sales to gasoline sales, from health care workers to hospitals, Maryland regulations are filled with anti-competition provisions that hurt consumers and enrich politically favored businesses.
But maybe, in this General Assembly session, adverse publicity over Maryland's funeral laws will bring about some change. Maybe Delegate Harrison and her allies will lose enough of their political grip to allow pro-consumer reform to occur. And maybe, just maybe, Marylanders enduring the grief of losing a loved one will no longer suffer the additional insult of an overinflated funeral bill.
Thomas Firey is senior fellow for the Maryland Public Policy Institute and managing editor of the Cato Institute's Regulation magazine. David Harrington is the Himmelright associate professor of economics at Kenyon College in Ohio and an expert on the funeral services market. Their e-mails are
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and
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.funerals01feb01,1,4103785.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“'And here, among the English tombs,
In Tuscan ground we lay her,
While the blue Tuscan sky endomes
Our English words of prayer'” Epitaph for Lily Cottrell by E
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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