Call it a membership fee to an institution that actually cares about you and everyone you care about for life.
Over here we have extractive taxation
Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
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Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
#22[dead]
Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
#23It’s interesting how this is framed as a “bad deal” (being apart of a kinship society) without taking time to breakdown the cost of being on your own in Ghanaian society, especially when healthcare, credit harm and other emergencies are broadly unaffordable in individualist, capitalist American society.
There are definite problems with the American system, but what is considered unaffordable healthcare there is lavish compared to much of the world.
Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
#24Basically my whole family have signed our bodies over to the local medical school. They make all the arrangements and pay for everything as soon as they're notified upon death. They'll normally give you the ashes upon cremation after a year or so, but personally I've given them permission to completely skeletonize me and keep the skeleton indefinitely. This helps society by helping student doctors learn, and it remov…
And for folks that do want to bury the body, it can be done way cheaper than the funeral industrial complex would have you believe. Our church keeps a simple coffin on hand that the family can use at cost. And we have folks who will prepare the body and bring it to the church. The only part we don't usually do is dig the grave. Cemeteries usually include that in the cost of the plot.
Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
#25It’s interesting how this is framed as a “bad deal” (being apart of a kinship society) without taking time to breakdown the cost of being on your own in Ghanaian society, especially when healthcare, credit harm and other emergencies are broadly unaffordable in individualist, capitalist American society.
The USA system is hardly the only alternative.
Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
#26In America we spend that money on weddings. Lots of young people wipe their savings on getting married, at one of the most critical times in life (just before starting a family). It often prevents them having kids or buying a home for years.
I am so glad we had a big wedding. It was so much fun, and all my friends and family had a blast.
Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
#27In America we spend that money on weddings. Lots of young people wipe their savings on getting married, at one of the most critical times in life (just before starting a family). It often prevents them having kids or buying a home for years.
I am so glad we had a big wedding. It was so much fun, and all my friends and family had a blast.
Are you otherwise well off? How do you define "big?"
Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
#28Meanwhile I want to be tossed into a hole bare naked with a tree planted on top of me.
Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
#29Sounds like failed priorities, spending that much on dead people, rather than the living.
Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
#30In America we spend that money on weddings. Lots of young people wipe their savings on getting married, at one of the most critical times in life (just before starting a family). It often prevents them having kids or buying a home for years.
My wife and I eloped at the city hall. Our wedding was $0.