Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead • Hacker News Board

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#221

Post by Retric » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #77

Retric wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even if relative wealth disparities remain constant. Relative wealth disparity increases as absolute wealth increases because below a minimum level of income people starve. IE you can’t make 1/10th the median wage in a subsistence economy long term you just die. But a homeless person can survive for decades in the US on ~500$ a month.

> IE you can’t make 1/10th the median wage in a subsistence economy long term you just die. But a homeless person can survive for decades in the US on ~500$ a month. There are two things I'd like to know more about for this: 1. Is the homeless person doing their survival in an area with a markedly lower median wage than the median wage their income is being measured against? (i.e. is "1/10 the median wage" an illusio…

2) This was more a hypothetical argument than an analysis of a specific individual. Humans survived before electricity let alone AC. They can’t survive without food. What’s the minimum someone can meet the basic needs for survival paying market rates?

But the argument still stands if you want to raise the minimum in the US to 1,000$/month to account for hidden value and require shelter. 8 people sharing a 2BR apartment is very much a thing.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#222

Post by eudamoniac » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 2:26 PM UTC

vladvasiliu wrote: post #196

Semaphor wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife is Sotho from South Africa. While there were certainly a bunch of, to me, very strange practices when my FiL died, it was nothing like what was mentioned in the article. That said, funeral insurance is extremely common in SA, as even normal burials can be pretty expensive.

> That said, funeral insurance is extremely common in SA, as even normal burials can be pretty expensive. This is off-topic, but how does funeral insurance even work? You're guaranteed to die at some point, right? To me, insurance is there to hedge against something not very likely , but expensive. The odds are you're going to pay money in, and never see it back (if you don't get sick / crash your car / whatever). Is…

Same way as term life insurance, I expect

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#223

Post by toast0 » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 2:32 PM UTC

vladvasiliu wrote: post #196

Semaphor wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife is Sotho from South Africa. While there were certainly a bunch of, to me, very strange practices when my FiL died, it was nothing like what was mentioned in the article. That said, funeral insurance is extremely common in SA, as even normal burials can be pretty expensive.

> That said, funeral insurance is extremely common in SA, as even normal burials can be pretty expensive. This is off-topic, but how does funeral insurance even work? You're guaranteed to die at some point, right? To me, insurance is there to hedge against something not very likely , but expensive. The odds are you're going to pay money in, and never see it back (if you don't get sick / crash your car / whatever). Is…

Funeral insurance is small policy life insurance.

Profitability comes from three prongs: many policies are canceled before a covered event, premiums are often collected for many years and have time to be invested before a covered event, and bundling with inappropriate investments.

For examples of inappropriate investments, you can look at whole life and variable annuities. Most people would be better off spending the same amount on term life + a stock index fund; assuming access to stock index funds, which is probably not a given in many African countries.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#224

Post by tim-projects » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 3:23 PM UTC

exceptione wrote: post #204

tim-projects wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In many cultures it used to be (or still is) quite common to treat brides as property. Property is not the right word for this. Responsibility is the right word. When a bride price is paid, you give money (or goods) to the family. In return the responsibility of the care of the woman is passed down. This is not a traditional monetary style transaction in the way it appears. In practice, a lot of families that accep…

You can replace bride with dog and nothing changes. We can sugarcoat it all the way we want, but in biblical times, when parents are under economic stress, female newborns are laid in the sun for post-natal abortion. Female offspring is a financial liability, they do not provide the same 'value' as males do. So when a father raises a women, the father gets compensated.

> You can replace bride with dog and nothing changes.

Your reductionist view of the world is both incorrect and insulting. I guess you like it that way

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#225

Post by komali2 » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #219

abenga wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Having other cultures around you makes one unhappy now?

Because the culture that's moving in is intolerant of my way of life and wants to piecemeal eradicate it by using the government to incrementally make every bit of the way I live harder, more expensive or subject to capricious enforcement if not outright illegal. I thought I would be able to get in a good 20-40yr settling down where I did and would only be complaining about this stuff when I was old. It's been about…

> And yes, I am intentionally not being specific and leaving room for assumption.

One thing I've consistently noticed about these kinds of conversations is that people want to be allowed to share racist opinions without suffering the social consequences of sharing racist opinions, but in order to do so they have to hide their true values by masking their language and not actually say anything that has any meaning.

I have nothing in my value system I'm ashamed of, I'll say any aspect of it in any company at all. Is it hard not having a value system like that?

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#226

Post by cineticdaffodil » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

dbdr wrote: post #173

cineticdaffodil wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That counter argument is valueless. Yes, it might be unequally spread but unless you can proof the locality of the phenomena the cliche still communicates. Not everything in the west is California but thanks to hollywood it is.

That sounds like a reversal of the burden of the proof to me. David Oks is claiming in his blog that "funerals keep Africa poor". The job of showing whether it is widespread and generally true in Africa belongs to David Oks, not to Madradavid.

Clanfamily culture unable to form states is keeping africa poor, the scoundrels of the family parlaying the patriarch to institute family internal socialism and extract from the entrepreneurs of the family.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#227

Post by littlexsparkee » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

0x1ceb00da wrote: post #170

littlexsparkee wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

seriously, i've never understood spending so much money on rituals like burial or marriage, might as well set it on fire. i'd just do aquamation or mushroom burial, whichever's the best mix of green/cheap.

It's a way of dealing with the fear of death. "When I die, an event will be organized for me and then I'll go to heaven". The living need to do that to maintain the illusion.

I mean, I understand their motivations at a distance, but I've always tried to confront harsh realities including my own mortality. It seems the better option to me over dulling the sensation with stupefiants or belief systems.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#228

Post by cucumber3732842 » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #225

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the culture that's moving in is intolerant of my way of life and wants to piecemeal eradicate it by using the government to incrementally make every bit of the way I live harder, more expensive or subject to capricious enforcement if not outright illegal. I thought I would be able to get in a good 20-40yr settling down where I did and would only be complaining about this stuff when I was old. It's been about…

> And yes, I am intentionally not being specific and leaving room for assumption. One thing I've consistently noticed about these kinds of conversations is that people want to be allowed to share racist opinions without suffering the social consequences of sharing racist opinions, but in order to do so they have to hide their true values by masking their language and not actually say anything that has any meaning. I…

Lol, and that's exactly why I worded it the way I did. As far are I'm concerned the "wrong kind of people" are the ones with no real problems and a propensity to make ones by gettin involved in other people's business. The fact that those people are mostly white is just random luck of how history turned out.

They show up, they get to screeching in the town hall meetings and before you know it the flock cameras go up, code enforcement is prowling around with a drone, Starbucks replaces the Popeyes, half the businesses you patronize sell out to developers of bougie stuff you don't want, everything costs more, etc, etc.

I'm sure the city wins on paper, it's replacing it's existing people with richer ones. And I'm sure the people who sell stuff to these richer people win, but everyone who was here first loses. We just wanted to pay low rents, drink beer on our front porches and let our kids ride dirtbikes in the street and generally live our lives.

I chose this city specifically because the kind of people I didn't want anything to do with said it sucked so much "my dad dealt crack in the 90s and that's where he'd meet his supplier" and all that, and it was so far away from where they usually like to settle. But with what happened to land values, rents, etc. after 2020 pushed a lot of them out here.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#229

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #128

overfeed wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a plausible argument that it’s causal. Europe had weaker kinship ties—for various reason Explain China[1] and its steep ascent, blowing past all European countries, and soon - the USA. 1. Or India, to a lesser extent. There's a lot of recency bias when it comes to economic outcomes, as if we're at the end of history. I'm guessing at least one 19th century British industrialist/gentleman probably praised th…

> Explain China[1] and its steep ascent, blowing past all European countries, and soon - the USA The communist party broke down traditional family structures, and replaced kinship ties with the state. To the point of massive intervention in family formation itself, through the one child policy. It’s not about Anglo-Protestantism per se, but about a general progression towards atomized societies with weak family bonds…

[deleted]

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#230

Post by asadm » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

selimthegrim wrote: post #76

asadm wrote: post #51

People should look again at how we Muslims bury. Not only is it much "green" but also cheap and doesn't waste land forever. There is wisdom in simplicity.

Muslims are also obliged to attend funerals - that goes double in Punjab for someone in your biradari.

obliged = attend funeral prayer at local mosque + help in burial. essentially free.