Is burying the dead unethical?

0:00Is it unethical or morally wrong to bury our dead? We've been doing it for as long as anybody that's alive now can remember. And it wasn't really one of those things that I thought about too deeply until I passed by a cemetery the other day and I was just thinking about how each one of those tombstones represents a dead person. somebody that was once alive and is now buried in the ground and likely in a in a casket about 6 ft deep. Is it a scam? Is it wrong? Is it something that we will one day look at as a barbaric practice that we bury our dead? And there's there's a few reasons why I've come to question the ethics of burying our dead. Not a conclusion, but definitely coming to the question.

0:59Number one, how much land is used worldwide for people that are dead? And I get it. It's not just people that are dead. It's for the people that are still alive and are mourning the ones that have died. It's to, you know, serve as a memorial and have a singular place that people can come and talk to a relative or a loved one that has since passed away. I get it. It serves more than just the person that died. In fact, it could probably be argued that it doesn't serve the person that died at all. However, people people are weighed down with these decisions once a loved one is, you know, deceased. Maybe maybe they already had their affairs in order, and they know exactly where they're going to be buried, which lot, and whatever. um they got it all worked out so their their kids or their grandkids or whoever is left doesn't have to worry about getting all of that arranged while simultaneously grieving that you know the fact that they just lost somebody.

2:12It's a lot to deal with. But again, you go six feet down, however many feet wide, and I get you can cram a lot of bodies into a singular cemetery, but add all that up. How many how many trees were cut down? And this isn't one of those like super woke tree hugging. Watch out, you got you got you can't cut down trees. No, I'm just, you know, if we are going to cut down trees and we are going to create land, you know, for for us to use, is it best to use it for our dead? Because it's not like you can start running it more efficiently. You you get a a plot of land or whatever it's called. you get uh uh 100 acres, let's say.

3:10Well, do the math and put everything all boxed up and try to cram it all together. You can only reach your limits as far as how many dead people that you can put in your cemetery. So, the only way to expand your business, because it is a business, is to get more land. So, we can't even we can't even try to be more efficient about it. How how weird would it be if um you you had to get buried on top of some stranger that died 20 years before and that's just, you know, where you happen to to end up. People people would feel weird about it. you know, you're you're not going to the same exact tombstone or the same exact plot of like the same exact little area in this already small designated area compared to the rest of the town.

4:07You're already coming here to mourn, but now you have to mourn in the exact spot. That would be weird, right? Is it unethical? cuz I don't I don't want to go too far away from the the primary question of of it, you know, is it unethical to bury our dead? looking at it from the first lens of how how this land could be better used whether that is I don't know maybe doing farming because you know that let's say that's even better than um a neighborhood or something that could be put there because houses could be built there and you know maybe maybe houses wouldn't be as expensive. I don't know. It's it's kind of a stretch, right? Um, but the more houses that we can put up, the less that they can be sold for because you know the whole supply and demand, how capitalism works and all that So maybe it could be used for that, but it could also be argued that you could turn that into uh some sort of farm or some, you know, some place where food is able to to be harvested and and all of that And then it ends up affecting more than just a neighborhood of people.

5:19You can feed the entire city from this one local farm. You know, this is all just hypothetical. But again, doing doing the math, adding up all of the actual all of the actual space that is taken up, that's one thing. all of the actual trees that are cut down. That's kind of another thing and leading me to my next point is once you are in the ground, uh, is it done? Do you just sit there and rest in peace? You don't have to worry about anything else. you're you're not going to be at all a part of the world anymore. You know, people can come and and visit you and mourn you and talk to your tombstone as if they're talking to you.

6:17Cool. But for the most part, the impact that you have on the world is done, right? You're dead. You know, if anything, you can give back. You know, become what do they say? It's like worm food, right? Wrong. Most people go through some sort of funeral home and you know a lot of people have some sort of like a wake where you end up seeing the the dead relative or deceased one whatever you know they go you go and see the body after it's passed. It's been all done up. The mouth has been uh sewn shut and all of the organs have been taken out. How how do you affect the world after you've already passed? Well, in order to preserve your body, they they put this thing called vermaldahhide. That's pretty sure that's how you pronounce it. Might be that up.

7:14But they put this like imbalming fluid in inside of your body in order to preserve your body so that you don't start to decay. And you know it that way when you have your grandkids coming to see you at your wake, they're not trying to hold back vomiting because of the smell. They're not looking at your skin like it has started to be a decaying corpse. It's ah that's grandma or grandpa that has passed on. They more or less look exactly like they did when they were alive. That's why they put the makeup on and they get them all dressed and and all of that. I guess to soothe the grieving souls of our people. The problem with the imbalming fluid is once it goes into the ground, it has bad environmental u side effects.

8:20Meaning it taints the soil and the groundwater in which you know it's around which ends up streaming off and affecting the plant and wildlife in the area. And it might be easy to say, okay, yeah, but it's just one singular area. Maybe I mean it's not the the best, but it's kind of like a landfill, right? It's it's all the bodies are at least in one spot. I mean, are they I'm just kind of like thinking off the top of my head at least like four different cemeteries in my city alone. And you start to think about each city at least having one cemetery. How many cities are in each state and then all 50 states? Come on. like is it just one area that gets affected and the world is still spinning, right?

9:20Where we're not we're not suffering from some sort of solar heat death or some like some crazy side effect that we know of from doing this, but we do know that it does have an effect on the things around it. Well, who cares? We have to we have to do it right. We have to mourn our lost loved ones. There's no other way. Well, see, I I'm not saying that there's no other way to mourn them. I'm not saying you necessarily can't do that, but to have a collective group of people that have all been injected with these poisons that we're putting into the ground and we know that it's going to affect the soil and the groundwater and the the plant and wildlife around it. That's that's quite an impact.

10:18Again, I'm not I'm not here to say it's right or wrong because really that something being right or wrong is just the consensus among the majority or the ones in power that is basically just saying what they agree with, what they say is right or wrong or worth the uh you know the ends justify the means type of situation. But I'm not here to say what is ethical and unethical. Maybe not yet. Maybe I will have a conclusion because I've kind of thought about each of these not too deeply, but on a surface level. And it doesn't just end with those two two reasons why it may be unethical to bury people. Right now, I'm kind of leaning towards it may be unethical to bury people in the way that we bury them now.

11:23You know, the the practice that we have right now, the fact that we voluntarily inject these poisons into our own ecosystems for people that have already died. I get it. It's It's tough. Death is hard. But death is a part of life. At least for now, until they expand our lifespan so much that it feels like we're all immortal. I don't know. But for now, nobody has escaped death. Death is going to happen. So, if it's going to be something that continuously happens and we know that the way that we deal with it right now is having an adverse effect on the environment, is it morally ethical to continue that same practice? The next the next reason why it may be unethical to bury people at least the way that we do now, and I let me let me be more specific.

12:22Bury people that have passed away, not just bury people. sounded uh kind of dark, but to bury people in caskets has a whole another group of problems. And actually, I'm going to I'm going to save that as a separate point. So, having the caskets, all of the material, not only are we cutting down the trees, but now we are cutting down more trees to provide for the wood for the caskets. But it's not just wood. You have metal and different casings and things like that. There's different types of caskets. It depends how luxurious you want to be for your your past, you know, the person that's passed away. How much did you love them? How much? You must not care doing this shitty coffin. You got to have all the bells and whistles with it.

13:20But there are materials that are used in caskets that do not break down in its environment. We're already tainting the soil and the groundwater, but now when you introduce nonbiodegradable materials, you have things that will be there for virtually forever. Great. Great. I mean, is it I guess is it that much of a problem? You could always move it. Let's say like at the end of the day like one huge tornado or hurricane and like a whole town gets wiped out or some like that, people are just going to come and build on top of that land not knowing what the underneath it and they'll figure it out once they're 6 feet under and be like, "Oh there's some bodies down here. Fuck." So, it only matters as long as we have people around that will put their foot down and say that, "Hey, this matters." how long that'll be.

14:18Obviously, I don't have no goddamn crystal ball. But these materials that are going in the the ground and aren't becoming a part of the earth and they're just staying there forever. Honestly, I I'm not a scientist. Maybe maybe that's one of those things where an expert be like, "Bro, this guy shouldn't even be talking." Well, he probably wouldn't say, "Bro, like Eat this." Homo sapiens should not be conversing about things that he does not know. I don't know how experts talk. I guess maybe I shouldn't be talking about something that I don't know too much because I know nonbiodegradable bad. Don't do it. Doesn't doesn't bode well for planet Earth. Do I know all of the specific things that happen when you introduce nonbiodegradable things to the earth?

15:16I I actually don't. I'm guessing it would be something like the metals or the chemicals, whatever is found in, you know, the materials that are used starts to seep into the earth and it starts to have the same type of effects that the u the inbalming fluid has. So maybe maybe that's what it is. If I had to guess, you know, if I was being quizzed right now, that's what I would say. But fact check me on that. But it's safe to say that most of us have heard that you don't want to just throw nonbiodegradable stuff onto onto the ground. What's that called? That's called littering. You don't want to litter. Why would you do that? People do it, of course. That's why, you know, we have all of these crazy examples of how trash has accumulated, but we're doing it as a practice. This is the one time where you're essentially littering.

16:17I mean, is it okay to litter if you bury it? If I just throw out a whole bunch of trash, but then I I bury it, is it still littering? Could I do that right in front of a police officer and they don't even bat an eye because well you were littering but then you buried it so now it's not technically littering because you can't see it. I don't know. Again, don't be talking about you don't know about. That's what I do all the time. So that's uh that's just unfortunate. You're just going to have to tune out if that's a problem. But it just it raises the question how we are legally allowed to do the same exact thing that I would guess technically isn't allowed. And unfortunately for the most part I don't know how many police officers would stop somebody for littering.

17:12I don't know why it bothers me. Like it bothers me a lot. I see it all the time. like literally just and and people just driving in front of my house. It's will just like stop randomly and just like throw out a milkshake that's like basically empty but still has a little bit. You just see a splatter all on the streets. It's like you ratchet Why? Why? And then and then like I like for the one I'm thinking specifically like that I've seen multiple times do it literally just drives and I see them like down the street. They end up going in their apartment. That's literally right down the street. And it's like, are you what? You it being in front of my house. Like like f that. It's not like they they threw it towards my side of the street. It was towards the other side. But why?

18:07We all live on this planet. Why would you do that? Why would you not just drive your your ratchet ass a little bit further because you was literally like 30 seconds away from your house and just go throw it away inside. Instead, your big back ass just wanted to throw it out the window real quick. I don't I don't get that. I guess the same way that I don't get how there's not some sort of update in the system as far as the caskets that we're putting uh people in cuz does it really matter? I mean that uh that that whole thing has always been something that I've questioned. That whole thing has been something that has always raised my eyebrows. Which I guess leads me to the last point that I wanted to make.

19:06The the whole death business in general. Like some really dark but genius had to have been behind that. We're going to take people that are at their lowest and we're going to exploit every single scent out of them. Like I said earlier, what what casket are you going to choose? We have options. Let's let's just pretend like it matters for a second. what box you put somebody in once they go 6 f feet underneath the ground. Let's pretend like they would give a And maybe there is that 01% that does put it in the will. Make sure that I have a mahogany oak or whatever the for my casket, man.

20:03What the hell? I don't even care about getting buried, man. What? What? I'm getting buried in. No. In fact, that's that's the reason why I would want to just be cremated as of right now. Subject to change, right? You know what I mean? But as of right now, why would I want to subjugate any of my loved ones to that? You don't need to see my body. You don't need to to do all of that. And I get it. It's It's not for you. It's for them. So, it's just like, well, then let me Help me help you because you you're obviously not understanding that this is essentially all a scam. Them exploiting your grief, them exploiting the fact that you will never see me again.

21:02And when will you have another time to show everybody and yourself and the hypothetical soul that is in my dead body? This will be their last chance to show how much you truly loved this person that has passed away. So you're really going to go with the cheapest casket? This is our most popular. all of the same business strategies that are already used. I guess I just there are certain times where because I'm a I'm a huge I'll be the person that defends business and capitalism and entrepreneurship and all of that good probably until I die. Unless something actually changes my mind. I'm not saying I'm not open to my mind being changed, but man, it would have to be something astounding that I just never knew and I'm I've just been blind to my entire life.

22:06But there are some industries where it just gives me the gh type of feeling. And one of them is the death industry. very close to that is the you are on your deathbed industry. You cannot afford this surgery or this treatment or this medication or any of that type of It just it makes me feel a certain type of ick that I just I just have a hard time putting it to words sometimes. It um it's gross. Okay, we'll get right back to the show, but first, your tongue print is just as unique as a fingerprint. And those tongue prints are the reasons why this episode is brought to you by Disconnected by XO Xuded.

23:02Now streaming everywhere you listen to music. Thank you and goodbye. shut out the world right now. I hope it Disconnect. I'm disconnected. Inhale. Exhale. Like it's medicine. the time until like everything ends. I keep trying to run away from everything that's in my head. But I think I think the death industry in my opinion is worse than the medical industry because so many things and I'm obviously not saying it's with all things but so many things that happen to people in America at least is because of the diet that we as a collective choose to eat that we um the fit the the fitness levels that we as a collective tend to tend to have which is damn near zero.

24:06Bro, most people are not fit. Most people are overweight. Most people do eat unhealthily. Most people don't give a and they treat their body like and then they end up in the hospital. A lot of things boils down to you figuring out what helps your body run the best. Um, I guess that's why that one that one has a little bit more argument on the other side where it's just like a lot of the people that need help. This could have been avoided. And I get it. It's sad. People are on their deathbed. People have these ailments and diseases and in need of surgery or whatever the hell. But it's just like to a certain point you you want to get to a point in your life where you're one taking care of yourself on both exercising and eating right, but two that just in case something does happen, you're able to provide for your own recovery.

25:16You know, if you get sick, you want to be able to afford going to the pharmacy and getting the cough medicine. So, to a certain point, I understand charging for medication, but damn, what about what about the family with or without insurance cuz it's expensive as either way, where, God forbid, they they get a child with cancer, innocent child, hasn't hasn't even gotten the chance at really starting their life. how you can't apply that same, you know, way of thinking. You can't apply that same well, you should have, you should have been eating, right? You should have been what? What? Explain explain a child with lung cancer that's never smoked, doesn't have parents that smoke or isn't around, you know what I mean?

26:14Like they they have air purify, whatever. That checks all the box. Even if they don't, even if they don't, how can you just be like, "What? I hope you can afford it because if not, good luck. Good luck. But the death industry once we've gotten past that and oh my god unfortunately this person has passed away whether it is it they're old older and you know their time has just come. they passed away peacefully in their sleep and this is the way that most people would want to go and it it was just their time or a tragic accident or some gruesome, you know, act of violence that ended somebody's life shorter than expected. But either way, their time has ended. No matter what the situation is, what you know, whether it's a child that just got diagnosed with cancer and then lost the fight or it's the elderly lady that is 102 years old and has given life one hell of a go and all the cases in between once once we're gone.

27:32Why? Why are we still We're still trying to trying to get every little cent. We got to be so gracious. Give me Give me that. Give me that. Give me that little dollar. Give me that dollar. We still We still have to cling to every single dollar even after somebody's gone. And you could say, well, that's not taken from them. That's not taken from the people that have passed. It's taken from their loved ones. And it makes sense to charge them because this is, as we all agreed, just as much for them almost, actually, just as much. This is almost entirely primarily because of what they want. They want to be able to have this experience. They want to be able to say goodbye. They want this. Of course, I'm going to sell them this service just like any other business would.

28:33I'm not wrong for that. There's my rationalization for that. What can you say now? It's just well one if the person that passed left any sort of money it's more than likely that even if not immediately hand in hand it takes some time to actually get it that's probably how somebody's going to look at it. Well this this this funeral it it cost 5,000 to put on and you know of course I had to do it. this this is what dad would have wanted. This is what mom would have wanted. I wanted to make sure everybody was here and they had a nice service and all of this stuff. It's like kind of I know times are tight right now, but thankfully, you know, we're we're going to get get the we're going to get all this back whenever the the life insurance kicks in or the will, you know, we we had the will read to us and it will kind of be like a reimbursement by the time it kicks in.

29:41So, what's the harm? I mean, you can't take the money with you. You might as well pay for your own funeral. What's the harm? I I guess I just I'm just the type where I don't even want to think about money on either side of the coin. If somebody passed, I would hate to know that my loved ones were thinking about money on either side of the coin if I pass. And let me explain what I mean by that. If I die and my loved ones are left holding the bill to take care of, you know, all of the the different things that comes with it, all the bells and whistles. They make sure that, you know, I'm in a in a casket to to really show how much they love me to really have a good send off.

30:37And it's going to be a nice spot in the cemetery because you don't want some shitty cemetery where you know you got what you got your your dead loved one here in the in the hood or they're they're just in the bad part of the town. No, you want it to be nice and a good scenery and it feel good when you come here and grieve. And of course, the visits become less and less over time, except for maybe if a parent loses their child. That's probably the the most mournful that I could imagine somebody being. That could be something where if I I'm not even finishing that sentence. I could see why I would I would never stop going to the the the gravestone or grave site, whatever. Um, the last thing I would want to think about, and I know I kind of went down on a tangent for a bit, but the last thing I want to think about is my loved ones having to hold the bell for all of this.

31:39And to be worried about money in a time like this because I mean, I would be dead. It it wouldn't matter anymore. It just wouldn't matter. So it is about them at this point in this hypothetical situation where I'm already dead. It is entirely about them for me. But when I say two sides of the coin, I don't want you to be worried about not being able to afford all of this. But I also would probably be turning in my grave if like my kids were fighting over, you know, who gets what, whose name is in the wheel. Is the is it split 50/50? You don't even deserve that. Is it like what what what is what's going on? Like all of that that you see as a cliche story time and time again depicted in different movies and TV shows, that is something where I almost thought it was like it I have such a negative reaction to that that I almost feel like like that has to be fake.

32:51And then, you know, my my uh stepmom, she she lost her her dad and her mom and her sister and and all of that. I just she would she would end up telling me stories about how they, you know, her at before her her sister passed or whatever, when her mom and her dad passed, they were all like talking about, "Okay, well, I should get this." Doing the same thing I'm talking about. sitting here arguing about who gets what and what money is where and you I I shouldn't have to pay for this and this like all of this where it's just like are you and then you know my stepmom was just like that's it's fine because you know similar to me she she was just like man I don't want to think about this I'm not arguing over this if anybody is waiting for a loved one to pass away and just thinking about a check that they may receive What kind of darkness do you have inside of you?

33:56I would guess it is a similar shade of darkness that could be found in the people that originally had the idea of exploiting people that are going through one of the worst processes, emotional process that that a human could go through, which is like grief and loss. you know, especially when it's unexpected, especially when it's just out of nowhere and they were young and it's just like, you know, there's there's so many ways where you can make the story more or less tragic and even when it is the least amount of tragic and it was just their time and you know what I mean, they were they were getting up there in age and they're at peace with it and all of whatever you want to say to rationalize that it was just that time. It still sucks. No matter how good you can try to make it sound, it still sucks at the end of the day.

34:57So, I guess I don't want to I don't want to point fingers at, you know, funeral homes or people that are in the death industry. Now, I guess so, so to speak. Like, I'm not trying to point fingers at these people because I mean, in a way, think about how it has been so ingrained into society where it's so normal. It's an actual path that you can go down like as far as what what your profession is. I mean, can you blame them? It's something that is recession proof. It's pandemic proof. It's something that people can't stop needing. And that's one of the one of the uh pieces of business advice that's like, you know, as old as time is pick a business that doesn't slow down, that is recession proof that people will continuously use time and time again.

36:12And no, it's not a subscription. It's not like you have a Netflix subscription type of thing with your your funeral home, but as a collective, give it enough time. Everybody knows everybody that knows somebody that has somebody that just passed away. And sometimes that person is you that knows that person that has that person that just passed. It's something that we can't stop. We can't outrun death. You can't blame these people, right? And that's why at the beginning I did pose it as a question like, is it unethical or morally wrong to bury our dead? And since the video started, I put a caveat on it, a little asterk. bury the dead as we do now.

37:15And I guess that's just that's probably more of a western practice anyways. I'm not sure around the world globally if that is the way that the majority of mankind is burying their dead. I think I'd be able to get over the fact that we're clearing trees and all of the space that's used for cemeteries and blas blas. That's the one I put first because that's also the one that I could kind of see myself struggling like, eh, we use land for every everything else. You know, we we we use land for anything else that we see fit. If we as a collective see this as a a benefit towards society, something that will help more than it takes away. I don't see that being the base of the argument.

38:14Um, yeah. But weirdly enough, I would say the environmental and financial backings, like the financial incentives behind that industry. Those would probably be the two reasons why burying our debt the way that we currently do is unethical. And the cool thing is we could probably change both things with just doing a few of the same things. Meaning, don't sit here and charge somebody an arm and leg and you're sitting here having like which which one of these uh caskets do you want them to have and blah blah blah. Like all all of that stuff that is ridiculous.

39:11So, how about you have some if you want to do wakes or whatever. Actually, let's get let's get to wakes later. As far as the caskets, there should be no, you know, here's the basic, here's the premium, and different levels of caskets and worksmanship that gets put into these boxes that are were just getting thrown into the ground and covered with dirt. How about we switch them to something biodegradable that is not it doesn't it doesn't have to be a marble at all. It doesn't have to be spectacular in any way. And if you want to make it spectacular, god damn it, man. Make it spectacular for all of them. Cuz who who are you to make somebody feel like to not be able to afford the more spectacular version of something once their person is dead, whoever it is, friend, relative, loved one, whatever.

40:18But doing that, making it biodegradable, even even that doesn't take away, that's why I said I wanted to table it. It doesn't take away the fact that we are obsessed with the idea of being able to say goodbye again, which unfortunately involves using the inbalming fluid, which involves, you know, introducing it to the environment, which does all of the things that we were talking about before. So, how do you how do you fix that? You just don't get to say goodbye. You either get to say goodbye when the body is fresh or you just don't get to at all. Or I don't know, man. Like, what if we would just have to fundamentally change? There is no getting your affairs in order. That time is of the essence. They just pass. They are going to be put in the ground or burned within the next 24 to 48 hours.

41:20Whoever can come can come. I'm sorry if you couldn't. Don't worry. You know what I mean? They'll forever be in yours. Whatever. I mean, the body's dead. It's going to decay. I guess I just I can't I can't think of something that will actually justify killing more things like the environment, like the affecting the the animals and the plants around around that area for something that has already passed for someone who has already passed. And I recently heard that uh some cultures believe that the soul remains trapped in the body for uh like months after after it passes away and then after that you know I don't know what they think happens.

42:22Either way, that still doesn't change. If you were stripping all of the inside parts of the body, would it wouldn't it just make more sense to just put the body in the ground? No box, no chemicals. Goodbye. I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm being too simplistic about this. Maybe I'm being too nonchalant about the whole thing, right? I don't know. I just when I find myself actually thinking about these things, I just can't help but come to the conclusion that if I were able to give an answer, I would say it just doesn't matter.

43:20And of course, like I said, there'll be that 01% people that says, "It does matter. You do need to put me here. I need to be in the family crypt or some like that. I need to be buried right next to my my dad and my dad's dad and my dad's dad's dad and all that shit." Um, maybe that's why. Maybe it's just my perspective as somebody that doesn't have that type of family lineage to hold on to that. um what is it called? Where it's uh where it's something that you you do time and time again. What it's not a trend. I'm trying to think of what it's called. But the a practice that you continue to do over and over again where you pass it down to your your next generation and they continue to pass it down. I don't have one of those. So maybe that's why I don't have some some sort of attachment to the way that we bury our dead.

44:16Maybe when I look at all of the the bad parts of or the bad things, quote unquote bad, because that's just my preference of what I think is right and wrong. But when I look at the negative sides of burying our dead, the way that we bury it now, and I compare it to the good sides, I mean, there's there's so many ways where we would be able to achieve the same exact thing, where you'd be able to say the same goodbyes, but we just do it a little bit different. you know, in the old old old days, and I'm talking about like most people living on their own land or whatever the hell, cities and and all of that I would imagine that most people would just bury their loved ones on their own property. And that's the beginning of a whole bunch of different horror movies where you end up moving into a place that you find out later that that plot of land ended up having people that died there.

45:25And of course, usually in the horror movies, it's all violent and but you know, you you wouldn't have to make it some big show back then. And this isn't me looking at I don't even know what year this would be. Like I would have to actually like look into when all of this started, but it's not like I'm looking at it through like some golden tinted lenses like ah those were the good old days. Obviously there was fair share of that happened there that would rather I'd rather be here any day but I guess I just I can't help romanticizing the idea of taking all the financial incentives away from such a shitty but natural part of life, death.

46:30And I don't give a man. You can say whatever you want, believe whatever you want, but I don't believe for a goddamn minute, not for one second, that somebody started using inbalming fluid and getting like nice crips and having all of these whatever the I don't think as far as the modern the modern like I'm charging you for it. Not including like the Egyptians or whatever, but they didn't do it for mankind to help you with your process. All of the sales pitch that you end up hearing once you go through the process, you know, and these were handmade and this was this will help you actually get what whatever that is is said. That is the sales pitch. And no, I'm not saying all sales pitches are up, but damn, objectively, I can't help but look at this whole industry and thinking of any sale to be made inside of that industry as up and disgusting.

47:45This one in particular, because you don't care. You've probably because you've been doing this so long, you've probably become numb to the idea of people dealing with grief, dealing with death. You've seen it and you know how to put on the face. And again, I'm not pointing fingers directly saying you guys are bad people. I'm saying it's an industry just like any other one. You know, the person that's at the the car dealership, they're not a bad person. This is just how they're surviving. This is how they have been able to put food on their own tables. And you can say you you are easily able to rationalize and justify you being in that business and saying that I'm helping people through this time. Yes, I'm charging people because I have to eat and that's how how the system is created. Don't be mad at me. This is just the game that we're all put in.

48:44But since we are here and we are playing this game, I might as well help people that are going through I don't know every single I don't I don't I don't have a a consensus of what the modern-day like funeral home director or whatever they're called. I don't I don't know how they are. I don't know if they're like sociopaths or psychopaths and they they just don't care. and they just they're ready to to see money, money, money. If it ain't about money, I don't care. I don't care which one of your family members died. I'm going to try and push for it. I know that you might be struggling. I can tell. I could just tell you're not one of the people that has a whole bunch of money, but I'm going to make you think that it is justifiable and right, morally right, to go into debt, to use every single scent to put yourself in financial jeopardy just to give the most gracious and luxurious send off to your loved one that you can.

49:46I don't know how they actually think about things. I guess that's why I'm leaning more towards the people that first started it. There's no way you could have just been like, hm. So, think about how everybody's already said they want, what do you want to do when somebody dies? You want to say goodbye. What if, just bear with me, what if we set up the entire thing? You know what I mean? Like, think about the person that first actually started putting their hands together and thinking of this idea. I don't know, man. It's I I recognize that it's it's just a personal thing and that it's it's not up to me to say what's right and what's wrong, what's ethical and what's unethical. All I can do is draw the line for myself and all that. But I guess I just can't see that person as being like a good person, a good part of society that just wants to make everybody feel better during their time of need and grief.

51:02So, I don't believe for one second that using imbalming fluid to, you know, make it where you can preserve a dead body for even longer than you could before. I don't think for a second that that was used out of good. It was wow. Think about how much more money we can make. Think about how many more bodies we can store in in the funeral home or whatever and and actually continue to profit off more and more. How many bodies have we had to turn away simply because we didn't have the ability to have so many rotting corpses in in this area? I don't know. I think that that's where these things came from. Oh, think about all of this these crypts that we can make and this this nice this nice design that we can have and we could even have a tombstone with you know what I mean? All of these ideas I think all of them they don't come from something like let me give somebody somewhere that they can they can come and say goodbye.

52:00If it was coming from a purely like just a a gracious place just because I want to be helpful, then you would at you would at minimum sell it for at cost. You know, it cost me $50 for the for the tombstone. Unfortunately, I can't I can't do this business if I'm just losing business. And maybe that is the problem when you're looking at this whole thing as a business. That's uh that's where things would get up. Why would I do that? Why would I just sell it for a cost? It it cost me $50 to make the tombstone. I sell it for $50. Not because I want to make a profit. Obviously, I make zero. But because I want Mrs. Jones here to have a tombstone that she could come and visit whenever she wants to talk to her husband. Whenever she's feeling down, whenever she wants to say a prayer and feel like she can actually be close to her loved one, this is how she'll know.

53:03This is how we'll be able to mark the grave. And it's not just some piece of wood that will start to perish over time. It's not something that will be destroyed. No, it's a nice tombstone. And I'm doing it for you, Mr. Jones. No. And that's not how it's done, is it? Here's my cost if it costs. And I don't know the the cost off the top of my head, but it's more than what it costs to actually make it. It's enough to have a profit. But maybe that is because it's just a business. Maybe it is because it's something that has to look at profits in order to survive. So, I didn't get into this because I'm some evil person. I'm not trying to upsell people when they come in and they're looking at this casket and I know it's fine.

54:03And I know there's basically no difference other than the price tag, but I need to keep the lights on and I justify it because I have employees and they have families and how are they going to feed their kids and how am I going to feed mine? And I mean, think about all of the other people that have been buried here. I can't go under. This business can't just go under. Well, I'm responsible for every single body that has been entrusted under my care. I have to make sure I continue. So, of course, I'm going to double my prices, triple my prices, whatever it takes to actually make sure that I continue to profit. Maybe maybe that is the problem. And that's why it gets scary when it's industries like that or the medical industry where you hear of so many stories of people getting surgeries that they don't need or getting prescribed medication that really has side effects that aren't worth it. In fact, you know, it makes it where you are more likely to die taking this medication than dealing with the original issue that you came in for.

55:07But it doesn't matter because, you know, some some pharmaceutical rep came by and started flashing the tits or had a nice smile and now this is what you sell. And every time you sell it, you make more money. Every surgery that you you have, you get more money. Anytime somebody needs an MRI or an X-ray, all of these things is just more money, money, money, money. And that makes it scary. That makes it scary. It would be scary if our fire department was profit based. And honestly, I would hurry up a little bit more to take out put out this fire that's over here in the in the projects. But, you know, statistically looking at it, it's more likely that they don't have the money to pay for my services. I'm more incentivized to go to the nicer neighborhoods that actually may have the money to to pay me.

56:04It won't be as much of a question. I can see based off of their environment that they have the means to pay for me as a fire fire department service. And maybe maybe it's like, okay, well then put some sort of rule in the fire department where they they have to still get there at a certain amount of time. Well, what how does that translate? Well, that translates to the poor parts of cities and towns and all of that. Those are going to be the parts of towns where they can't find help. They can't find a firefighter to come and work for them because they already know that their paychecks depend on somebody being able to pay them or not. In fact, you might even have some psychopath that is like, "You know what? You know what? I'm going to start setting fires. I'm going to start setting fires just so I can be called to put them out."

57:07So you got psychopathic firefighters setting fires just so that they can be the person to come and rescue the day and get the paycheck along the way. And then you also have the richer parts of towns getting more firefighters there because nobody wants to be a firefighter and put theirel at risk just to not be able to get paid just to go put out a fire for somebody that can't even afford their rent. In fact, you know what? Do they even deserve to get their fire put out? It's that same type of same type of mentality. Like I I get it. You want to be able to bury your your loved one, but you can't afford it. They charge you to cremate, just to burn your loved ones. They still charge you. It's They still charge you. You can't afford it.

58:07I'm I'm sorry. You're going to have to You're going to have to pay or you just don't get it. We could look at something like firefighters and just be immediately be like, "What?" I couldn't imagine them just not going to an area to put out the fire. I couldn't imagine an entire city's fire department having help wanted signs everywhere and they just can't find the help because nobody's willing willing to risk their lives for a paycheck that is probably not going to come because there's too many poor people in that city. I couldn't imagine somebody charging somebody an arm and a leg while they're grieving somebody that just died and saying that I'm sorry if you if you want to bury this person. This is how much it costs. And if you can't afford it, then you can go to our cheaper alternative like cremation.

59:08And if you can't afford that, unfortunately, I won't be able to help you. the hurricane that your mind feels like it's in and not in the middle, not in the eye where it feels all calm, but on the outsides where it's most chaotic. This is when you're asking them to deal with these things. It's potentially unethical. to bury people the way that we do now. I think it is completely 100% unethical to charge people the way that we charge them now just to bury them using practices that aren't really even needed. And yes, I get it. It could change the timeline on how long it would take for the body to start to be deceased or it it would it would change as far as like where where you would be able to bury them.

1:00:11There would be things that change. I get it. I get it. But I think most people, again, if they could just give the the yes or no, the red light or green light on whether or not they give a after they pass away on what I'm buried in, what piece of land I my body goes into. Everything is temporary anyways on a on a long enough timeline. It's all temporary. I think most people just wouldn't give a and they would be appalled to think about all of the financial struggles that their loved ones have to go through. And there's there's um there's there's push back, you know, there's there's people that say, "Okay, we don't have to subscribe.

1:01:11We can do like a a green burial type of thing and then just do like a natural burial. These do exist. I'm not the first person that ever thought of the environmental impacts of being buried. Yeah. I guess uh I guess after just talking it all out though, it's not enough cuz then it just makes me think if it was a natural burial, are you still going to charge them along the way? Are you still going to charge them to have a space to come and say goodbye? And nobody wants to deal nobody wants to deal with with the body of their loved one. So I guess I understand that there there's a demand there. So of course there's going to be somebody there to supply it. Nobody wants to have to worry about moving the dead body of a loved one and getting it all set up and doing whatever it take.

1:02:17Even if you're just like doing like one of those Viking funerals where it's just like you put on a raft and it's set on fire like like setting all that up. Like there's a lot of people that they would rather just opt out. I don't want I don't want to you know what I mean? That's why that's why that's one of the cliches as well. When you go to the wake and you have somebody that is still finding it hard to come to terms with the fact that this person just died, it's I can't I can't look at them. I can't see them like this because if I see them, I'll know it's real. And once it's real, it's going to fully set in. And I don't know if I'll be able to deal if it's fully set in. So, I get that there is some demand there. There is some help, but nobody wants to have to worry about putting out the fire to their own house, rushing into a burning building to make sure it doesn't spread to the next person.

1:03:19It's one of those things that maybe maybe that's one of the rare instances where a socialism type of response isn't too bad. And when I think of socialism, I think of communism. And when I think of communism, I get that that ick feeling that we was talking about earlier. So I don't say it lightly, but just like with the fire department, the police department, and even like the the trash there are many things that uh and actually not the trash. I don't think that's No. Yeah, it depend. I don't know.

1:04:15For sure. the fire department and the police department. How does that work? Because when you pay with water, sometimes it'll be like water and sewage. So, I don't know if those go together. I don't know. Regardless, we have different industries that it just works to say, you know what, as a collective, let's pay for this. I think death would be one of those industries for me. I think uh because I'm still I'm still on the fence with healthcare because the argument for having like um where taxpayers pay for health care and the same thing I was talking about where you you stop you take the financial incentive out of it blas blas the the next thing that you hear the push back and complaint is that yeah well you should see how long it takes to actually get a surgery when you need one you don't have to pay for it.

1:05:15But, you know, imagine waiting for a year for a surgery that you need tomorrow. So, I I I get the push backs there. But with death, again, if we changed how we did it, we're not sitting here putting all this marksmanship on. You don't have to have the these humongous caskets that, you know, have materials in it that don't even degrade in the in the earth. It's it's it's not something that we need to do. So, if you just went down the most simplistic route, you know, when the the firefighters come, they don't have some huge like eight headed hose that does uh water works or they don't have like, you know what I mean? They don't have they didn't go above and beyond with firefighters if you think about it. You know what I mean? There was there's probably more things that they could do like some sort of I I don't even know.

1:06:12I'd have to like come up with something, but some sort of tool or device or machine or vehicle that would be able to be even more efficient and extravagant and you're going all out and it would just go crazy. But it's like, do we need for the fire truck to have rims on it? And does it need to have like the hydraulic system where it bounces back? No. like we don't need a casket to have like all of these grooves and make sure it's perfectly um symmetrical and I guess symmetrical still will work. But you know what I'm God damn it. I hope you know what I'm trying to say. No, with a firefighter, we say, "Hey, this is a truck. It can hold the water. Here's a hose. It can it can join to the the fire hydrant. You'll be able to take care of all this." It's it's enough where you can do your job. It's not like I could barely do it. It's it's per like it's it's enough.

1:07:09It's enough. Why don't we do that with death? Well, we could if we were actually trying to cut as many costs that would be morally allowed by the majority if if that makes sense. Like, you know what I mean? Don't be disrespectful. Just for the sake of of saving a buck here, too. But also don't be extravagant because there's no need because you're not charging these people and you don't have to trick them into thinking that well this box that is $5,000 more is actually better because this is more comfortable and it looks like all of I I don't even like I would cringe if I just went to a funeral home and they started trying to sell me on the more expensive casket.

1:08:06What features? What are you going to be basing it off of? Don't say comfort. Cuz again, most people they going to come back and be like, "Bro, I don't give a What comfort? I feel nothing." Nothing. It doesn't matter. You could just throw my body in the ground. I think as a society, as a collective, we could figure out something that is acceptable to us where we're not feeling like we're disrespecting our dead and that we can still mourn our lost loved ones, but is also cost effective enough where we can pick it up as again a society and a collective as a whole and pay for it through taxes or whatever it You know what I mean? There are so many things that our taxes pay for that most people would be like, "No, why why are we we're we're spending our money.

1:09:03You're wasting our money on this on this." So, if we could do it for firefighters, if we could do it for police officers, we could do it for our dead and we can cut costs. All of these, if you Well, you know, it's a billion dollar a year industry. I don't That's me making some up. That's at the That's with the thought of let's upsell as many people as we can. Let's give as many bells and whistles as we can, not caring how big we're racking that that bill up to be. Who cares? So, you can't you can't look at that. But if you look at the most coste effective way again to bury our dead without disrespecting them and the only way you'd be able to figure out a majority consensus on what that practice should be is if you actually let people vote for it and you know what I mean like get people aware of that and then you start to just implement that from here on out.

1:10:05You stop poisoning the soil, you stop poisoning the ground uh water, you stop poisoning the uh the animals and plant life around the area because you're not using uh inbalming fluid. You stop using all of these materials that don't degrade in in the earth and just stay there forever. You're not cutting down a whole bunch of land that isn't really needed because you don't need these giant crypts and you you've done it a more minimalist way, a more simplistic way that is not only respectful to our dead ones. It's respectful to our planet and it's respectful to the people that just lost somebody. that the last thing on their mind should be, can I afford this? Can I pay for this service? And am I a good enough daughter, husband, wife, mother, father, whatever you are to the compare, you know, to the dead person.

1:11:09Am I good enough if I don't give them the top of the line, at least the the medium option, the most popular as they'll probably put it to you, or did I let them down if I go for the basic route, the most cost effective route? We shouldn't be putting people in those positions. And because of that, I think it's uh it's currently unethical the way that we bury our dead. But it's not something that would be impossible to change. It would actually be pretty easy. We would just have to all adopt it on a on a mass level. So, I guess now that I say it out loud, that is not easy. That would be hard as We we can't agree on So, I guess we'll we'll continue to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for boxes that go into the ground that for the most part don't even break down and just stay there forever with our bodies inside that have chemicals that go into the ground and up the environment.

1:12:21And we just continue this cycle over and over and get gouged by people that take advantage of people that are going through grief and mourning, people that just passed away. Great. This was uh this was productive.