1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:06,840
Speaker 1: Filo conspiracy realist. This classic episode is important, it is personal,

2
00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:12,320
Speaker 1: and it touches on one of the unfortunately universal experiences

3
00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:13,480
Speaker 1: of all living things.

4
00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:22,280
Speaker 2: Death. Yeah, spoiler, Yeah, that's the end of this reality, right,

5
00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:26,320
Speaker 2: this plane of existence? But hey man, who says it's

6
00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:28,840
Speaker 2: the end? Is it just the beginning?

7
00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:33,080
Speaker 1: Come on, and what happens when this is the thing

8
00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:37,920
Speaker 1: that I know got us we're creating this episode. What

9
00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:42,800
Speaker 1: happens at one of the most terrifying parts of your life.

10
00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,960
Speaker 1: A loved one passes away, and now, in addition to grieving,

11
00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:50,280
Speaker 1: you have to do all these other things. You have

12
00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,600
Speaker 1: to file paperwork, you have to have a funeral, you

13
00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:58,920
Speaker 1: have to hopefully trust the people and the professionals that

14
00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:00,720
Speaker 1: are going to help you with that, and.

15
00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:03,040
Speaker 2: You gotta come up with a whole bunch of money

16
00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:04,160
Speaker 2: to make it happen.

17
00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:10,880
Speaker 3: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is

18
00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:15,280
Speaker 3: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

19
00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:17,319
Speaker 3: learn this stuff they don't want you to know.

20
00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:32,400
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

21
00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:33,319
Speaker 2: my name is Nolan.

22
00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:35,559
Speaker 1: They call me Ben. We are joined with our super

23
00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:39,160
Speaker 1: producer Paul Mission controlled decant most importantly, you are you,

24
00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:42,280
Speaker 1: and you are for now here, and that makes this

25
00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:46,880
Speaker 1: stuff they don't want you to know. Fun fact, everybody

26
00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:50,840
Speaker 1: in the studio today, as far as we know, is alive.

27
00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:54,600
Speaker 1: But we're gonna die eventually, a lot of us.

28
00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:57,280
Speaker 4: He started it with a glass half full scenario, Ben,

29
00:01:57,320 --> 00:01:59,200
Speaker 4: and then Matt, you made it a glass half empty.

30
00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:01,840
Speaker 1: Well, you know, there's some hope at the end of

31
00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,760
Speaker 1: the tunnel. But maybe that's a show for a different day.

32
00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:08,240
Speaker 2: If you think it's just the nature of the glass,

33
00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,600
Speaker 2: it's really it was made, but it's gonna die.

34
00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:19,760
Speaker 1: Sure so right now, with maybe one notable technical exception,

35
00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,760
Speaker 1: dying is still the great equalizer. Dying is, for many

36
00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,840
Speaker 1: of us listening inevitable, and here in the United States,

37
00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:33,239
Speaker 1: dying is quite expensive. It's a burden that your loved ones,

38
00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:37,200
Speaker 1: when they survive your demise, will often end up bearing themselves.

39
00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:41,480
Speaker 1: As of twenty eighteen, the average funeral costs between seven

40
00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:45,960
Speaker 1: thousand and ten thousand dollars. And that doesn't include everything, right,

41
00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,520
Speaker 1: That includes some stuff, but like you know, it includes

42
00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:53,600
Speaker 1: a viewing, burial, and balming. Hearse service transfer of remains

43
00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:57,440
Speaker 1: a service fee, because everything has a service fee. Nowadays,

44
00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,520
Speaker 1: but it doesn't include other things. It's like, awake, that's

45
00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:06,240
Speaker 1: on you, Flowers that's on you. A million other things

46
00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:09,119
Speaker 1: are on you. And typically when people are in this situation,

47
00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:12,240
Speaker 1: it's one of the worst moments or periods of time

48
00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:13,880
Speaker 1: in their life, you know what I mean.

49
00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:17,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, the grief associated with that moment causes a lot

50
00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:22,639
Speaker 2: of these other things to be a little more acceptable unfortunately.

51
00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:25,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's almost like you want to do right by

52
00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:30,920
Speaker 4: your deceased loved one, and surely that means forking out

53
00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:34,480
Speaker 4: a bunch of money for an ostentatious casket, right.

54
00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:34,520
Speaker 2: And.

55
00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:42,320
Speaker 1: Often survivors fall prey to unscrupulous business practices. And it

56
00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,119
Speaker 1: is a big business indeed, Given that everyone except where

57
00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:49,200
Speaker 1: Henrietta Lax has so far died and Henrietta Lax is

58
00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:53,400
Speaker 1: only technically kind of alive, this industry is an incredibly

59
00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:57,840
Speaker 1: reliable source of income for people in every strata of

60
00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:02,040
Speaker 1: the business. And given the incredibly, incredibly sensitive nature of

61
00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:05,800
Speaker 1: this situation, it's no surprise that aspects of the funeral

62
00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:09,800
Speaker 1: industry often come under fire. But this leads us to

63
00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,640
Speaker 1: today's question, how much of this criticism is alarmist? How

64
00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:18,400
Speaker 1: much of it is warranted, and ultimately, is the funeral

65
00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:20,600
Speaker 1: industry crooked or corrupt?

66
00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:23,080
Speaker 2: The old funeral industrial complex?

67
00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:28,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, Kroner, remember Kroner from the sixteen under. They were

68
00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:31,240
Speaker 4: like big funeral and they were pushing down the little

69
00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:32,240
Speaker 4: mom and pops like.

70
00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:34,960
Speaker 1: You know, the fishers, buying them out.

71
00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:36,120
Speaker 4: Buying the mout left and right.

72
00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:41,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, is industrial burial complex? Better? Just spitballing here?

73
00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:45,360
Speaker 1: I like funeral industrial I don't know, man, vote, how

74
00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:47,800
Speaker 1: about you help us out? Listeners? What was the first

75
00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,480
Speaker 1: one funeral industrial complex and the second one.

76
00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:54,400
Speaker 2: Was burial industrial complex? I don't know. That's not as good.

77
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:56,320
Speaker 2: I like funeral. Let's go with funeral.

78
00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:01,000
Speaker 1: I like big death, but that's probably some that's really good,

79
00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:06,520
Speaker 1: really insufferable AKA musician's name, you know, de Eth?

80
00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:07,520
Speaker 2: Yeah?

81
00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:11,680
Speaker 1: Right, So what are what are the facts? Let's start there.

82
00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:16,039
Speaker 1: Not only is it going to cost between seven to

83
00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:19,960
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars on average just to bury someone, but

84
00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:23,520
Speaker 1: that number indicates an increase, right, a trend.

85
00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:27,000
Speaker 2: Yeah. Between two thousand and four and twenty fourteen, the

86
00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,679
Speaker 2: median cost of an adult funeral increased twenty eight point

87
00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,840
Speaker 2: six percent from five thousand, five hundred and eighty two

88
00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,000
Speaker 2: dollars to seven thousand, one hundred and eighty one dollars.

89
00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:41,279
Speaker 2: So that's over a ten year period, twenty eight almost

90
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,320
Speaker 2: thirty percent increase. That's pretty intense. And that's according to

91
00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:50,440
Speaker 2: the National Funeral Directors Association or NIFTAH Yeah, NIFTA, NYFTE

92
00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:54,000
Speaker 2: nift And that almost thirty percent might seem like a

93
00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:57,800
Speaker 2: hugely steep rate of increase, but between nineteen eighty and

94
00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:01,400
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty nine, just nine years, the average funeral costs

95
00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:05,560
Speaker 2: rose by eighty seven percent, a lot of eighties in

96
00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:06,479
Speaker 2: those numbers there.

97
00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:10,560
Speaker 1: It's true, and it sounds it sounds quite precipitous, right,

98
00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:13,720
Speaker 1: But what does that include? So let's say you pay

99
00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:19,719
Speaker 1: slightly higher than average price for a funeral, what do

100
00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:20,479
Speaker 1: you get for all that?

101
00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:24,960
Speaker 4: Well, let's break it down for you. A nominal fifteen

102
00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:28,440
Speaker 4: hundred dollars feet goes to the funeral director and the

103
00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:32,960
Speaker 4: services that they provide. Casket cost approximately twenty three hundred dollars.

104
00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:35,080
Speaker 4: But of course you can upgrade, you can pimp your

105
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:39,080
Speaker 4: casket embalming. I think that's probably pretty standard five hundred dollars,

106
00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:40,800
Speaker 4: which seems reasonable to me. A lot of work that

107
00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:43,520
Speaker 4: goes into that process and a lot of expertise. Cost

108
00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:45,800
Speaker 4: for using the funeral home, which is more of like

109
00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:49,080
Speaker 4: an event services kind of thing, five hundred bucks. I

110
00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:51,080
Speaker 4: would think that that would be less than the embalming.

111
00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:54,120
Speaker 2: See I thought it was going to be more.

112
00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:57,200
Speaker 1: Yeah. Really well, Also we have to keep in mind

113
00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:00,039
Speaker 1: these prices can vary depending on the home.

114
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,560
Speaker 4: You go to, course not for Then you've got the

115
00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:05,600
Speaker 4: cost of a grave site, which is one thousand dollars.

116
00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:06,960
Speaker 1: I thought that was on the low side.

117
00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:08,279
Speaker 4: It does seem on the low side. Is that Does

118
00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:10,840
Speaker 4: that mean that's like the you own that land or

119
00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:11,520
Speaker 4: are you renting it?

120
00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:11,800
Speaker 2: Are you?

121
00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:12,440
Speaker 4: How does that work?

122
00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:14,080
Speaker 2: Upkeep? Baby, it's just upkeep.

123
00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:16,800
Speaker 4: You got to pay, so you have to buy the

124
00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:19,200
Speaker 4: land the plot first. This isn't even for the plot.

125
00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:21,680
Speaker 4: This is just the upkeep. Uh.

126
00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:23,440
Speaker 2: There's probably two costs of.

127
00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:26,720
Speaker 1: That's the that would be the initial cost.

128
00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:29,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right. Then you've got the the old grave

129
00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,600
Speaker 4: diggers fee that's six hundred. Then you know that's a

130
00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:35,360
Speaker 4: deep hole that's worth that. You know that's a lot

131
00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,640
Speaker 4: of work. Then you've got the cost of a grave

132
00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:42,080
Speaker 4: liner or outer burial container. So it's a casket for

133
00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:45,320
Speaker 4: your casket, yeah, which which is brand a real thing

134
00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:47,800
Speaker 4: that typically yeah.

135
00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:50,360
Speaker 2: Very odd had no idea that this was real, didn't either,

136
00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:51,400
Speaker 2: and I assume it would.

137
00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:54,480
Speaker 4: It would be to keep the casket in pristine condition.

138
00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:56,400
Speaker 4: So how would you get into that if you were,

139
00:07:56,480 --> 00:07:58,680
Speaker 4: let's say, a grave robber, how would you crack into

140
00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:00,640
Speaker 4: that outer? Is it like something that has a lid

141
00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:01,040
Speaker 4: as well?

142
00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:03,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty inconvenient. You would have to break a

143
00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,120
Speaker 1: seal part of it. Part of it also is meant

144
00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:12,800
Speaker 1: to contain the dangerous chemicals in a corpse. Yeah, if

145
00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:14,960
Speaker 1: it's been embalmed. And you said that that was one

146
00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:16,960
Speaker 1: thousand bucks, right, a cool grand.

147
00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,720
Speaker 4: And then you've got the headstone, which is fifteen hundred.

148
00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:23,440
Speaker 4: Because that's a piece of custom masonry, right, you got

149
00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:25,600
Speaker 4: to have someone that can carve it by hand. I

150
00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:29,160
Speaker 4: gotta wonder. Do you think there are mass like factory

151
00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:31,640
Speaker 4: produced gravestones that are a little cheaper.

152
00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:34,440
Speaker 1: Yes, you see, Yeah, those would often be the things

153
00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:38,440
Speaker 1: that have more like a plaque sort of situation, and

154
00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:41,520
Speaker 1: they're embedded into the ground, but they don't stand up.

155
00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:46,440
Speaker 1: In this example, which is a wonderful example, the total

156
00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:50,080
Speaker 1: cost would approximate about nine thousand dollars. And again that's

157
00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:54,200
Speaker 1: just for the main items. There could be additional charges

158
00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:57,920
Speaker 1: for dozens of things. Placing the obituary in the newspaper

159
00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:01,319
Speaker 1: that's not free, buying the flower that's not free.

160
00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:04,240
Speaker 4: And just for comparison, the cost of at least in

161
00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:06,640
Speaker 4: my experience, when I owned a house, putting a brand

162
00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:09,319
Speaker 4: new roof, like stripping off the old roof, putting on

163
00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:12,720
Speaker 4: a whole new roof with good material, about ten thousand

164
00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:15,800
Speaker 4: dollars and that's supposed to last you ten to twenty years. Wow,

165
00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:18,240
Speaker 4: So this is like I don't know, I just but

166
00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:20,560
Speaker 4: this is forever. Yeah, but I don't know. There's a

167
00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:23,079
Speaker 4: lot of very magical thinking that goes into this whole process.

168
00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:26,200
Speaker 1: Well, also, there's not a situation with the roof salesman

169
00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,280
Speaker 1: where they say, think about what your dead relatives would want.

170
00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:29,840
Speaker 2: That's right.

171
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,080
Speaker 1: You know that changes the equation, It really does. So

172
00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,760
Speaker 1: let's look at another thing on the rise. I hesitate

173
00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:42,079
Speaker 1: to call it a hot trend. Cremation. According to NIFTA,

174
00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:45,880
Speaker 1: the median cost of a funeral with cremation is a

175
00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:48,760
Speaker 1: little bit cheaper at six thousand and seventy eight dollars

176
00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:51,960
Speaker 1: that's fifteen percent cheaper than the median cost of a

177
00:09:51,960 --> 00:09:54,880
Speaker 1: funeral with a burial. Some sources will put the average

178
00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:57,360
Speaker 1: cost of a cremation even lower. They'll say you can

179
00:09:57,360 --> 00:10:00,280
Speaker 1: find a deal for two thousand to four thousand dollars,

180
00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:03,120
Speaker 1: but that is still a lot of money for the

181
00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:04,120
Speaker 1: average person.

182
00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:05,760
Speaker 4: I think I may have said this on the episode

183
00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:09,160
Speaker 4: we just did, the two parter are on secret burial

184
00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:14,040
Speaker 4: sites and lost bodies. My father was cremated, and they

185
00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:16,040
Speaker 4: also can up charge you on that because they try

186
00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:18,120
Speaker 4: to make you buy a fancier receptacle.

187
00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:20,200
Speaker 1: They call it a what do they call it an urn?

188
00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:21,920
Speaker 4: An urn, but there's a name of a vessel.

189
00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:23,040
Speaker 1: They call it a vessel.

190
00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:26,480
Speaker 4: That's the funeral speak. And I think we went with something.

191
00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:28,920
Speaker 4: We literally got it in like a I mean, don't

192
00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:30,760
Speaker 4: judge me here. We got it like in a plastic

193
00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:33,600
Speaker 4: box and with it in like a bag inside of it.

194
00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:35,800
Speaker 4: And I still have some of that, it's in my closet.

195
00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:37,640
Speaker 4: That's that's a little dark.

196
00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:39,760
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, No, you should be sorry.

197
00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:40,200
Speaker 2: It's nice.

198
00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:46,280
Speaker 1: Actually yeah, but let's let's also remember that this we're

199
00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:48,800
Speaker 1: looking at the average price for a one and done

200
00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:53,640
Speaker 1: kind of thing. But almost one point eight million people

201
00:10:53,760 --> 00:10:57,000
Speaker 1: are buried every year in this country alone. That amounts

202
00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,640
Speaker 1: to a fifteen billion a year industry. And we have

203
00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:06,160
Speaker 1: some interesting comparisons about what that means with the modern burials,

204
00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:07,840
Speaker 1: not green burial or cremation.

205
00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:13,280
Speaker 2: So there's enough embalming fluid that gets buried every year

206
00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:19,480
Speaker 2: to fill eight Olympic size pools. M there is more

207
00:11:19,559 --> 00:11:23,120
Speaker 2: steel used in caskets alone than was used to build

208
00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:26,040
Speaker 2: the Golden Gate Bridge every year. We're talking on a

209
00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:30,080
Speaker 2: yearly basis here, and enough reinforced concrete to construct a

210
00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:33,320
Speaker 2: two lane highway from New York City to Detroit.

211
00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:37,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, boggles the mind. That's every year. And also, you know,

212
00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:43,160
Speaker 1: just to be very very clear here, we're not being

213
00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:47,480
Speaker 1: glib or disrespectful to those who have passed on. This

214
00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:51,960
Speaker 1: industry has problems, right, And I love that we got

215
00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:55,640
Speaker 1: to the six feet under example, because that's one of

216
00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:57,960
Speaker 1: the big plots of the show. What was it started

217
00:11:57,960 --> 00:11:59,559
Speaker 1: with a sea? What was the name of the Boner,

218
00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:05,560
Speaker 1: so Kroner. This isn't spoiling six feet under, which is,

219
00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:08,880
Speaker 1: however many years old. Now this is not important to

220
00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:12,199
Speaker 1: the character development of the show, but it does paint

221
00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:15,280
Speaker 1: this alarming picture. It makes us think maybe of other

222
00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:21,120
Speaker 1: industries wherein monopolies have taken over, right, maybe something like

223
00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:25,079
Speaker 1: Amazon now, or maybe Walmart with supermarkets yeah.

224
00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:26,400
Speaker 4: Or like internet service providers.

225
00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:31,640
Speaker 1: Yeah ect I was thinking the same thing right. Luckily,

226
00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,800
Speaker 1: if you're an opponent of trust and monopolies, you will

227
00:12:34,800 --> 00:12:37,800
Speaker 1: be glad to learn that in the United States, at

228
00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:41,319
Speaker 1: least for now, most of the nineteen five hundred or

229
00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:45,600
Speaker 1: so funeral homes in the country are still small, mom

230
00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:50,199
Speaker 1: and pop, family owned, family owned operations that have been

231
00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,320
Speaker 1: in the family for multiple generations. For now, at least,

232
00:12:54,679 --> 00:13:03,559
Speaker 1: We'll be back after a word from our sponsor. Here's

233
00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:05,000
Speaker 1: where it gets crazy.

234
00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:09,240
Speaker 2: Don't even let yourself be fooled by this idea that

235
00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:12,640
Speaker 2: these small funeral homes are gonna be there forever. McDonald

236
00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:16,200
Speaker 2: AND's sons and all the other ones. Big business wants

237
00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:18,640
Speaker 2: a piece of this pie. They want this industry in

238
00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:22,240
Speaker 2: their grasp, and large companies have been making some serious inroads.

239
00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:26,319
Speaker 2: Here are some of the biggest companies that control currently

240
00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:28,320
Speaker 2: the death industry, Big.

241
00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:34,559
Speaker 1: Death, oh Man or the funeral funereal industrial companies. Oh

242
00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:39,800
Speaker 1: I like that funeral different, Walmart, Walmart might not be

243
00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:43,000
Speaker 1: a big surprise. Walmart sells a ton of stuff. They're

244
00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,559
Speaker 1: the world's largest retailer brick and mortar. At least they

245
00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:50,720
Speaker 1: helped begin the trend of selling low priced caskets online.

246
00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:51,840
Speaker 4: Wait do they still do this?

247
00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:57,160
Speaker 1: Yeah? I believe so. Really Yep, there's a The name

248
00:13:57,360 --> 00:13:59,680
Speaker 1: seems kind of ghosh, But one they came out with

249
00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:03,079
Speaker 1: was nine hundred ninety five dollars casket called the Dad

250
00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:07,840
Speaker 1: Remembered Steel Casket with eighteen gage steel high gloss silver

251
00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:10,640
Speaker 1: blue finish. That model may not be around anymore, but

252
00:14:10,679 --> 00:14:12,840
Speaker 1: they are still selling caskets.

253
00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:15,800
Speaker 2: I just found it at Sky Caskets.

254
00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:18,800
Speaker 4: I have found it on walmart dot com. This one's

255
00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:21,720
Speaker 4: called funeral casket. It's called the Briar Rose.

256
00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:23,720
Speaker 2: Oh.

257
00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:26,400
Speaker 1: I just feel like Dad Remembered is a terrible name.

258
00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:31,640
Speaker 2: I read it as Dad remembered steel, like Dad remembers

259
00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:32,920
Speaker 2: his steel, he knows.

260
00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:35,800
Speaker 1: I read it kind of as Dad Comma remembered.

261
00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,680
Speaker 2: Yes not, that's that's what it should be. But there's

262
00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:39,440
Speaker 2: no punctuation.

263
00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:42,520
Speaker 1: I feel like for that much, for that much money,

264
00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:45,280
Speaker 1: there should be some proof reading involved.

265
00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:46,880
Speaker 4: Why am I so blown away that I was just

266
00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:49,320
Speaker 4: able to pull up like a catalog page on Walmart

267
00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:51,920
Speaker 4: with like browsing caskets. It never occurred to me that

268
00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:53,400
Speaker 4: you can buy caskets from Walmart.

269
00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:55,320
Speaker 2: How about overstock dot com?

270
00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:59,560
Speaker 1: Yep, Walmart's taking his share of the death care industry

271
00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:06,560
Speaker 1: away from those traditional manufacturers and funeral homes. And according

272
00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:11,000
Speaker 1: to the various trade groups in the casket industry, the

273
00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:15,560
Speaker 1: impact of these brick and mortar stores is still kind

274
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:18,720
Speaker 1: of small, but it's definitely growing.

275
00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:20,440
Speaker 2: It's good that it's there.

276
00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:24,360
Speaker 1: I guess, well, that's what a lot of people say

277
00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:25,120
Speaker 1: about Amazon.

278
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:32,440
Speaker 2: Yep, Amazon, enter you Amazon, old Bezos.

279
00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:35,880
Speaker 1: He's uh old Bezos.

280
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:36,120
Speaker 2: Old Bezos.

281
00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:38,480
Speaker 1: It sounds like he hunts a gigantic white whale.

282
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,040
Speaker 4: It sounds it also sounds like some kind of thing

283
00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:41,880
Speaker 4: you'd put in a soup.

284
00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:45,280
Speaker 2: Just hit it with a dash of that Bezos old

285
00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:46,320
Speaker 2: Bezos basil.

286
00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:48,920
Speaker 4: It's like creole wow.

287
00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,040
Speaker 2: Okay. So Amazon has this thing it's called revenue, and

288
00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:56,440
Speaker 2: they've got seven point six billion of it. Uh that's

289
00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:58,840
Speaker 2: in US dollars. And it's often said that you know

290
00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:02,440
Speaker 2: they sell everything. Well, guess what if Walmart sells caskets,

291
00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:04,800
Speaker 2: you gotta believe Amazon's all over there.

292
00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:08,400
Speaker 4: No, I just searched. I couldn't find any. You're kidding me,

293
00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:11,440
Speaker 4: I'm not kidding you caskets. I found a lot of movies.

294
00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:14,680
Speaker 4: That's one called Help, I'm Possessed, The Closer, the complete

295
00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:17,480
Speaker 4: third season, and of course Six Feet Under season's one

296
00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:21,440
Speaker 4: through completion. But no, I can't buy I don't see

297
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:22,600
Speaker 4: any Amazon caskets.

298
00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:24,720
Speaker 2: My man, it would be fun to watch a group

299
00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:26,160
Speaker 2: of drones trying to deliver one of them.

300
00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:30,040
Speaker 4: You know what else? Amazon doesn't sell sex toys? WHOA, yeah,

301
00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:33,360
Speaker 4: they they they've got they've got their their boundaries.

302
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:34,560
Speaker 2: All right. You got to go to Adam and Eve

303
00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:35,560
Speaker 2: dot com for that.

304
00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:38,800
Speaker 4: Not brought to you by Adam and Eve.

305
00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:42,480
Speaker 1: It looks like now they've they've taken those off the

306
00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:47,200
Speaker 1: market and they just have pet caskets, oh, which I

307
00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:51,840
Speaker 1: imagine was somewhat less offensive maybe or somewhat less problematic

308
00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:55,160
Speaker 1: from a shipping standpoint. That's probably the closer answer.

309
00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:59,160
Speaker 2: Didn't they have some kind of I don't know, agreement

310
00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:01,880
Speaker 2: with another company or something. Maybe that's why they were

311
00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:03,000
Speaker 2: temporarily selling them.

312
00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:06,439
Speaker 1: They used to sell more than fifty different varieties of

313
00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:09,760
Speaker 1: caskets or coffins and they sold a steel embalming table,

314
00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:14,080
Speaker 1: they sold pet eurns and oh yeah yeah, they had

315
00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:17,920
Speaker 1: a partnership with Best Price Caskets dot Com.

316
00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:18,920
Speaker 4: And then it went south.

317
00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:24,240
Speaker 1: Must I guess that deal is pushing up daisies.

318
00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:28,840
Speaker 4: Pet caskets are pretty posh. This one's called Pause Rest

319
00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:32,440
Speaker 4: Premium pet casket Comma small. How much is it about

320
00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:33,160
Speaker 4: three eighty nine?

321
00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:33,879
Speaker 2: Wow?

322
00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:39,520
Speaker 1: Which you know, again, when a pet passes, it's still

323
00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:41,560
Speaker 1: in many cases just as damaging.

324
00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:44,240
Speaker 4: Is I love that absolutely Again, For some reason, the

325
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:47,840
Speaker 4: idea of a pet casket I find comical.

326
00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:53,040
Speaker 2: My cousin. My cousin has the most tasteful burial plots

327
00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:57,680
Speaker 2: for her cats. It is incredible it. If anyone would

328
00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:00,760
Speaker 2: ever spend that much care on me, I die, I

329
00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:03,359
Speaker 2: would be. I mean, I wouldn't be, but I think

330
00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:07,520
Speaker 2: everybody else would be really happy about it and moved

331
00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:10,439
Speaker 2: by it. Yeah, it's incredible. She cares. She loves those

332
00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:13,080
Speaker 2: cats so much so that she like makes these beautiful

333
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,199
Speaker 2: almost it's almost like I don't even know how to

334
00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:23,280
Speaker 2: describe it. It's it's almost like having a tribute landscaping and.

335
00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:26,560
Speaker 4: Beautiful that is levely and in your backyard. I mean,

336
00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:28,600
Speaker 4: I'm all about that. That's a place you can, you know,

337
00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:31,560
Speaker 4: wander through and go and visit. And I mean, I

338
00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:34,600
Speaker 4: I have no problem with the idea of burial of

339
00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:36,960
Speaker 4: humans of loved ones at all. The part that I

340
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:39,639
Speaker 4: get hung up on is the exorbitant cost and the whole,

341
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:41,960
Speaker 4: you know, Because I was gonna mention off Mike that

342
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,560
Speaker 4: I had heard a piece on Hidden Brain actually where

343
00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:48,639
Speaker 4: I was talking about lifestyle choices and the idea of

344
00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:50,959
Speaker 4: being an influencer and this, that and the other, and

345
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:53,880
Speaker 4: one of the segments was about funerals, and I said

346
00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:56,960
Speaker 4: out loud to my girlfriend, I said, I bet poor

347
00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,879
Speaker 4: people spend more money on funerals than rich people. And

348
00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:04,639
Speaker 4: that's exactly what the stat was, on average, on average

349
00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:05,199
Speaker 4: in this country.

350
00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:09,800
Speaker 1: Well. Also, there's a privatized insurance industry that springs up

351
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:13,760
Speaker 1: around this, and the same things that occur in medical

352
00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:19,000
Speaker 1: billing occur in the in the in the funeral industry,

353
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:22,640
Speaker 1: paying for it forever. A lot of the major players

354
00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,880
Speaker 1: in this industry also have very very innocuous names. Carriage

355
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:31,480
Speaker 1: Services Incorporated. Does it sound like the maybe the company

356
00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:35,000
Speaker 1: that has the horse drawn carriages in downtown.

357
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:36,320
Speaker 2: Areas Exactly what I was thinking.

358
00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:41,240
Speaker 1: Does it sound like maybe they repair transmissions or something

359
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:43,320
Speaker 1: in fleets of commercial vehicles.

360
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:44,360
Speaker 2: No.

361
00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:48,800
Speaker 1: In twenty eleven, they were the fourth largest publicly traded

362
00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:53,480
Speaker 1: entity in the death care industry. They operate. As of

363
00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:55,880
Speaker 1: that time, they operated one hundred and forty seven funeral

364
00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:59,320
Speaker 1: homes in twenty five states, thirty three cemeteries in twelve states.

365
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:02,879
Speaker 1: They make a lot of money in what are called

366
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:07,840
Speaker 1: pre funded funeral and burial services. This is where you

367
00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:10,879
Speaker 1: plan ahead. Let's say ten thousand a pop is too much,

368
00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:13,800
Speaker 1: but you kind of put your death ritual on layaway.

369
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:14,400
Speaker 1: It's called like.

370
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:16,800
Speaker 4: Pre need pre need, that is what they call it

371
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:18,640
Speaker 4: in Six Feet Under. I know all these terms from

372
00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:20,080
Speaker 4: watching that show. The pre need.

373
00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:22,119
Speaker 2: Wow, I mean, I guess that's smart.

374
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,080
Speaker 4: You do it in advance. Yeah, they don't have to

375
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:27,280
Speaker 4: worry about it. It's almost like doing a living will

376
00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:28,360
Speaker 4: or something like that. Right.

377
00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:30,920
Speaker 2: Yeah. Can I tell you guys a quick quick story please.

378
00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:35,000
Speaker 2: So it's no secret my wife's family is not that

379
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:37,439
Speaker 2: well off, but they have lots and lots of family

380
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:41,439
Speaker 2: in there. They're just wonderful, awesome they have they have

381
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:48,080
Speaker 2: wonderful communities like connection. I guess right. So when my

382
00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:52,480
Speaker 2: wife's grandfather died, all of these people showed up, almost

383
00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,800
Speaker 2: every single person showed up with a roll of cash

384
00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:59,640
Speaker 2: and just handed it to my wife's grandmother and they

385
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:02,119
Speaker 2: were all paying for the funeral. In that moment with cash,

386
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,639
Speaker 2: everybody together is amazing. And that's another part of the

387
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:08,760
Speaker 2: hidden brain stap. The reason that people typically with less

388
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:10,760
Speaker 2: money spend more on funerals is because it becomes this

389
00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:14,320
Speaker 2: community thing. Yeah, whereas rich people it's a much more segmented,

390
00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:16,800
Speaker 2: small affair they might just do because you know, they

391
00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:19,359
Speaker 2: don't They're not bringing people in from far and wide

392
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:21,240
Speaker 2: for this funeral. It's much more of a they like

393
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:24,600
Speaker 2: their privacy or whatever. Whereas people with less money they

394
00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,160
Speaker 2: make it an event where the family comes in from

395
00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:28,960
Speaker 2: all over and it's an excuse to get everyone back

396
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:29,760
Speaker 2: together again, you know.

397
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:34,480
Speaker 1: Again specifically in the US, right, absolutely, absolutely. So it's

398
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:37,880
Speaker 1: interesting too because a lot of families that come from

399
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:40,960
Speaker 1: generational wealth, which happens quite often here in the States,

400
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:45,119
Speaker 1: a lot of those families will already have dedicated, older plots,

401
00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:50,720
Speaker 1: so they actually may have fewer upfront costs. It's expensive,

402
00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:55,280
Speaker 1: it's expensive to be impoverished in this country. Right, there's

403
00:21:55,320 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 1: another company called Hill and Brand Incorporated. I like, I

404
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:04,240
Speaker 1: if we're just making up things based on the name,

405
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:07,200
Speaker 1: I would like to think that they sell those gift

406
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,800
Speaker 1: baskets with summer sausage and different cheeses and maybe a

407
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:11,960
Speaker 1: little bit of chocolate if.

408
00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:13,880
Speaker 4: You upsell Pepperidge Farm remembers.

409
00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:18,600
Speaker 1: But unlike Pepperidge Farm, Hill and Brand sells forty five

410
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:21,720
Speaker 1: percent of all the caskets in the US, or they

411
00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:26,240
Speaker 1: did as of twenty eleven. They sell more than eight

412
00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:29,120
Speaker 1: hundred thousand and the one point eight million sold each year.

413
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:34,439
Speaker 1: They also sell cremation containers, vessels, earns, and they sell

414
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,159
Speaker 1: all these products, though not under Hill and Brand. They

415
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:41,560
Speaker 1: sell it under Batesville Casket Company brand. It kind of

416
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:44,600
Speaker 1: how that brand was founded in nineteen oh six. It's

417
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 1: similar to how a few food manufacturers may make a

418
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:52,160
Speaker 1: ton of stuff and some of its build is organic

419
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:54,200
Speaker 1: and some of it. It's kind of like how McDonald's

420
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 1: owns Chipotle, if we're.

421
00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:57,360
Speaker 2: Being honest totally, you know what I mean.

422
00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:00,320
Speaker 1: And in recent years, Hill and Brand has become an

423
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:04,320
Speaker 1: entity that makes more of its money off of manufacturing

424
00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,080
Speaker 1: non death related things. So they got a boost from that,

425
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:12,000
Speaker 1: and they're expanding out. It's you know, capitalism Vegas baby.

426
00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:14,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what I mean. You gotta get in

427
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:17,840
Speaker 2: there while you can with these companies. And also, you know,

428
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:19,919
Speaker 2: you do what you can to represent your company in

429
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:22,760
Speaker 2: a the best way, best forward facing way.

430
00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:28,280
Speaker 1: Right now, if there were one company that would be

431
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:33,239
Speaker 1: named as a monopoly in this unfortunate industry, if there

432
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,200
Speaker 1: were one company that would closely resemble the big corporate

433
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 1: bad of six feet under fame, it would be something

434
00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:45,840
Speaker 1: with the name Service Corporation International. What does that mean?

435
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:48,440
Speaker 1: We'll tell you after a word from our sponsor.

436
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:59,360
Speaker 2: So let's talk about that name. Service Corporation International.

437
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:02,200
Speaker 1: Could literally be any thing that happens internationally.

438
00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:08,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a service and not a specific good necessarily. Well,

439
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 2: let's just say this Service Corporation Internationally deals with death

440
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 2: and that's how they make their money death.

441
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,919
Speaker 1: Yes, it is entirely a company making money off of

442
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:23,840
Speaker 1: those services. It was founded in nineteen sixty two by

443
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:28,159
Speaker 1: a guy named Robert L. Waltrip. He grew up in

444
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,640
Speaker 1: the funeral business. He was from one of those mom

445
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:35,359
Speaker 1: and pop outfits. As of twenty seventeen, this company owned

446
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:38,320
Speaker 1: oney four hundred and eighty eight funeral homes and four

447
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy three cemeteries across the US and Canada.

448
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 1: It makes them the largest funeral and cemetery services company

449
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:50,840
Speaker 1: in the entire world. They also own facilities in eight

450
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:57,000
Speaker 1: European countries England, France, Germany, and additionally they conduct business

451
00:24:57,040 --> 00:25:02,919
Speaker 1: in Singapore. They provide services like embalming, burial cremation, prearranged

452
00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:04,639
Speaker 1: or pre need funeral packages.

453
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:08,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, their products cover every aspect of the funeral everything

454
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:12,840
Speaker 2: we were talking about, caskets, burial balls, flowers, cremation, funeral options,

455
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,480
Speaker 2: burial garments, and as of twenty eighteen, it's estimated that

456
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,480
Speaker 2: their share of all just the total funeral and cemetery

457
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:24,840
Speaker 2: market in North America is fifteen percent. Now, that doesn't

458
00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:27,240
Speaker 2: sound that high, ben fifteen percent.

459
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:28,439
Speaker 1: It doesn't, does it.

460
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 2: It really doesn't. And why is that?

461
00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:36,480
Speaker 1: Well, you see SCI keeps growing, Matt as we're recording this,

462
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 1: And there's something that Service Corporation International does not want

463
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:46,600
Speaker 1: you or your loved ones to know. This company is

464
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:52,640
Speaker 1: largely made up of other small businesses. Overwhelmingly the funeral

465
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: homes that are SCI. Funeral homes are things that it

466
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 1: acquired from these smaller outfits, these mom and pop things,

467
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 1: and they didn't want these homes to be less profitable,

468
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: so they didn't want them to seem like some giant,

469
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 1: faceless funeral corporation, right, So instead they take over relatively

470
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,960
Speaker 1: in secret, and the mom and pop businesses keep their

471
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 1: name on the things, so it's still like Paul Decant

472
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 1: and Cousins Funeral Home or whatever.

473
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 4: This is literally the plot of six ft under, right, yeah,

474
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:28,399
Speaker 4: because six f under is based off absolutely. Yeah, I

475
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 4: was not aware. This is really really fascinating. So it

476
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:35,800
Speaker 4: makes sense. Yeah, because it's such a comfort industry. You know,

477
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 4: you don't want to feel like you're doing business with

478
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 4: like big death, right. You want to feel like you're

479
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,160
Speaker 4: doing business with someone who understands your community and your

480
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:45,439
Speaker 4: plight and is there for you as a as a

481
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 4: helping hand and a friendly.

482
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,919
Speaker 1: Face, and as their family has provided memorial services for

483
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,480
Speaker 1: your family generations and generations back.

484
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:53,120
Speaker 4: Yeah.

485
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,320
Speaker 1: And also it makes sense that they would want to

486
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:59,879
Speaker 1: grow in this way because they already have a lot

487
00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:02,240
Speaker 1: of the economy of scale at work.

488
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:02,479
Speaker 2: Right.

489
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,760
Speaker 1: They're they're getting I'm sure, massive discounts on different supplies

490
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 1: they run a couple of logistics chains. So a typical

491
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: funeral home that is owned by SCI will not contain

492
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 1: any advertisements or any logos for SCI, with the exception

493
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 1: perhaps of one thing, a little employee pin on the

494
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: on the lapel of people who work there. Interesting.

495
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,400
Speaker 2: I think I've seen this before, but I'm I can't.

496
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:32,399
Speaker 2: I looked at a picture of one of one of

497
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,199
Speaker 2: the lapels that actually has it on there, and it

498
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 2: looks so familiar. Now I'm I'm questioning how many of

499
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 2: these funeral homes I've been to. I've been to that

500
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:44,119
Speaker 2: many funerals, but I've been in a share and I

501
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:46,920
Speaker 2: think I've seen it. Here's me out.

502
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,199
Speaker 4: But here's a question, though, Why why? Why is this

503
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 4: so disturbing? It's business. It makes sense. It benefits the

504
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 4: mom and pops theoretically, theoretically they get to keep doing

505
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 4: this and being where they always have been. Is it

506
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:07,000
Speaker 4: insidious just because it's this kind of the nature of

507
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 4: the industry makes us feel like it's gross to make

508
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:13,120
Speaker 4: money anyway? But aren't the mom and pops already doing that? Ah?

509
00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:16,680
Speaker 1: Yes, excellent foreshadowing. Let's let's walk down this rabbit hole

510
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:22,000
Speaker 1: a little bit further. So SCI does have one thing

511
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:27,200
Speaker 1: that you can easily use to discern them. They place

512
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 1: emphasis on a number of different brands. One is Dignity Memorial,

513
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 1: and the Dignity logo can be seen on their homes

514
00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 1: and their funeral homes and in cemeteries and paperwork and

515
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 1: so on. They have other brands too, but that's one

516
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 1: of the most popular ones. And right now SCI has

517
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: not consumed the entire industry by any means, but its

518
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 1: recent acquisitions have observers concerned. The FTC is getting involved,

519
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: which is something I didn't think happened in the funeral industry,

520
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,480
Speaker 1: or I just never thought about it. In two thousand

521
00:28:57,480 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: and six, they wanted to merge with something called the

522
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 1: alder Woods Group, its nearest competitor, and the FTC said,

523
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:06,959
Speaker 1: this is going to create a monopoly, this is going

524
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:11,880
Speaker 1: to break antitrust laws. Eventually they allowed the merger to continue,

525
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:16,600
Speaker 1: which you know, was a huge boon to SCI's growth.

526
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 1: They tried to purchase an outfit called Keystone North America

527
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 1: for two hundred and eight million in two thousand and nine,

528
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 1: and they got they got it. It slid through somehow.

529
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:28,840
Speaker 1: These guys have a lot of a lot of grease,

530
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 1: as we're going to find out too. They have a

531
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:32,600
Speaker 1: lot of juice, you would call it on the streets.

532
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 1: In May twenty thirteen, they signed another deal, one point

533
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:40,520
Speaker 1: four billion dollar deal to purchase Stuart Enterprises, the second

534
00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: largest what they call deathcare company, and the FTC this

535
00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:49,120
Speaker 1: in this acquisition said Okay, we're keeping an eye on you.

536
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 1: You can do this, but there need to be some

537
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 1: rules in place. So here's where we get to your question.

538
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, the company's penchant for pretending to be

539
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 1: a local shop is miss but what's the big deal?

540
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: What gives It's not illegal to do that? And if

541
00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 1: that's all the company is doing, then we could say,

542
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: we could argue, if we're going to be a little

543
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 1: bit cold about it, that it does not particularly matter

544
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:15,040
Speaker 1: how we feel about the practice itself, so long as

545
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 1: the locations still offer the same services. The people who

546
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 1: got bought out often still work there as management. Their

547
00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:25,120
Speaker 1: jobs don't change. They just become a franchise. For lack

548
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 1: of a better term, However, that's not the case. As

549
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 1: it grows, SCIS become the subject of more and more controversy.

550
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: One of the things is cost This company is known

551
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 1: for having slashed its overhead and raised prices dramatically, in

552
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,960
Speaker 1: some cases, much higher than independent funeral home operators, which,

553
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:53,560
Speaker 1: when you think about it, is the opposite of what

554
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 1: you might expect, because usually the way that Walmart's will

555
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: drive out small businesses will be to operate at a

556
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:04,920
Speaker 1: loss for months or you know, years in certain departments

557
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,880
Speaker 1: so that the smaller places can't compete. These guys are

558
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 1: doing the opposite. There's an issue of Bloomberg Business Week

559
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: that was published in October twenty fourth, twenty thirteen, where

560
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 1: a guy named Paul M.

561
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 4: Barrett.

562
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: I say, a guy, a journalist named Paul EM Barrett

563
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:28,440
Speaker 1: quoted different different stats and he found that at the time,

564
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 1: SCI's on average charge was and fifty six bucks without

565
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:41,640
Speaker 1: the plot and without the casket, just the other stuff.

566
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 2: That seems like a lot.

567
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 1: It is it is a lot.

568
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,640
Speaker 4: Is that because they have an effective monopoly and so

569
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 4: they can basically fix their own prices and there's no

570
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:51,440
Speaker 4: competition anymore.

571
00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 1: Is that the issue here in some areas that very

572
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:57,240
Speaker 1: well could be. I mean, that's almost fifty percent higher

573
00:31:57,280 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 1: than the real mom and pop shops.

574
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 2: Right, geez? And uh, lest we forget that's bad enough, Like,

575
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:08,840
Speaker 2: just knowing that you're operating, you could be saving people

576
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:12,240
Speaker 2: a lot of money on their funerals if you wanted to, maybe,

577
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 2: but you wouldn't have the prophecy you're getting. But what

578
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:17,920
Speaker 2: about something called funeral gate?

579
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:20,760
Speaker 1: Yes, funeral gate? Have you heard of this? Have you

580
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:21,560
Speaker 1: guys ever heard of this?

581
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 4: Yes?

582
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:24,040
Speaker 1: Do you were familiar with this before? Right, Matt?

583
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 2: Yes?

584
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, this is this is weird and lack of

585
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,160
Speaker 1: a better term, this is this is fascinating. Has to

586
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 1: plot twist that this is a controversy that occurred in Texas.

587
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 1: And according to Fox News, sci Service Corporation and International,

588
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 1: which was doing business as Dignity Memorial under a different

589
00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 1: name and then under dozens of other different names. Right,

590
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 1: they were recycling graves. What does that mean?

591
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were taking the bodies they were originally like

592
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 2: meant to go in. They were throwing them in the

593
00:32:56,840 --> 00:33:00,600
Speaker 2: woods to use the space to house new customs. Two

594
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 2: Jewish cemeteries in Florida. So they're taking people out that

595
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:08,400
Speaker 2: they were going to bury and just throwing them in

596
00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 2: the woods.

597
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: And there was a Texas official who was tasked with

598
00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:18,080
Speaker 1: watching over these sorts of behaviors or preventing these sorts

599
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 1: of behaviors and watching over the funeral business. Who alleged

600
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,840
Speaker 1: that she was fired in retaliation for whistleblowing, and that

601
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 1: she was fired by the administration of then Governor George W. Bush.

602
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: George W. Bush had received campaign contributions from the Waltrip family,

603
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 1: the founders of Scirops, the Wall Troops. They are based

604
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 1: in Texas. It's not unusual to be loved by anyone

605
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 1: campaign finance wise, you know what I mean, Like a

606
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 1: it's not unusual to be bribed by anybody else. No,

607
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm it's a bad joke, but it really

608
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is, you know, if you

609
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 1: are running for a position at that level of government,

610
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,920
Speaker 1: a ton of large businesses are going to want to

611
00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 1: donate to your campaign. That's just how it works here, right,

612
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:17,799
Speaker 1: So that's not necessarily corrupt. But the person who said

613
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:21,360
Speaker 1: they were ousted did say it was. They did allege corruption,

614
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,720
Speaker 1: and they said that the governor had been essentially paid

615
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 1: off by the Waltrip family to make this scandal go away.

616
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 1: George W. Bush was subpoena to testify about this in

617
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: court in nineteen ninety nine, but he refused to do so,

618
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:41,600
Speaker 1: and on August thirtieth, nineteen ninety nine, a Texas judge

619
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 1: ruled that he could not Bush that could not be

620
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 1: forced to testify. So it all sort of went away

621
00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:50,280
Speaker 1: for twenty years.

622
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:53,839
Speaker 2: Now, something happened around that year in nineteen ninety nine

623
00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 2: where he became an even more powerful governor of sorts.

624
00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 2: I can't remember what happened exactly.

625
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:03,920
Speaker 1: Right lead up to the election, Yeah, absolutely right, And

626
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:08,959
Speaker 1: so people who alleged that there was some corruption there

627
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:14,799
Speaker 1: will we'll see this as just one of many smoking guns, right,

628
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:19,360
Speaker 1: and other people will say, well, meritless claims happen against

629
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:23,040
Speaker 1: a state official all the time. Yeah, right, Like there's

630
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:28,120
Speaker 1: probably some comptroller right now who is getting just they're

631
00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:31,160
Speaker 1: my favorite example, who is getting some sort of strange,

632
00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 1: ludicrous lawsuit thrown at them. Right. So the question is

633
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:38,719
Speaker 1: it really it depends on your personal take. But the

634
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:42,080
Speaker 1: legal opinion was that he did not have to testify.

635
00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 2: Look, if you are a politician of any sort and

636
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:48,120
Speaker 2: you're not getting bribes thrown at you left and right,

637
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:50,600
Speaker 2: you're doing something wrong. And I'm not saying you're taking

638
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:54,759
Speaker 2: those bribes. But if nobody wants to bribe you. I

639
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:56,280
Speaker 2: don't know. That's a bad look.

640
00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,320
Speaker 1: Did he ever do an episode about lobbying?

641
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 2: We did videos about it.

642
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 1: I don't think we have not an audio places the kind.

643
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:08,279
Speaker 4: Of thing where it figures into other topics. Maybe we

644
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:09,759
Speaker 4: haven't a solo.

645
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 1: Yacas because I think for all of us who are

646
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:20,040
Speaker 1: listening from someplace outside of the United States, lobbying just sounds.

647
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 2: Heinous.

648
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, heinous is a fantastic words. It seems counterintuitive, it

649
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 1: seems illegal. How is bribery illegal in this country? But

650
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:32,080
Speaker 1: lobbying is fine? You know what I mean?

651
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:33,799
Speaker 2: Because semantics bro.

652
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 1: We had to have talked about at some point anyhow.

653
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:42,239
Speaker 1: So that's funeral gait, and that's that's one of the

654
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:47,240
Speaker 1: controversies that hit SCI's reputation. But the people largely forgot

655
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:49,520
Speaker 1: about as time went on. But they were active in

656
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:53,440
Speaker 1: other states. In Virginia there was evidence of improper storage

657
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 1: of bodies and various states of decay. We're talking two

658
00:36:57,239 --> 00:37:01,520
Speaker 1: hundred something in makeshift gurneys in a just routing.

659
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:04,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, not a good look or smell.

660
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:06,680
Speaker 1: Well, what happened in Florida?

661
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:08,480
Speaker 2: Oh it's even better.

662
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:10,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's true. In two thousand and one, it was

663
00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:14,359
Speaker 4: reported that employees of the Memorial Gardens Cemetery near Fort

664
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 4: Lauderdale had oversold the cemetery, so bodies were buried in

665
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:21,520
Speaker 4: the wrong places, separating husbands and wives. Vaults were cracked

666
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:24,760
Speaker 4: open by a back hoe, bodies were exhumed with bone

667
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 4: skulls and shrouds thrown into the woods. Again, bodies were

668
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 4: stacked on top of each other, and remains were relocated

669
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:34,719
Speaker 4: without notifying any of the relatives.

670
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is a huge deal for anyone. This

671
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:45,359
Speaker 1: is especially egregious and horrific thing for members of the

672
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:51,359
Speaker 1: Jewish community because for more religiously observant families and customers,

673
00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 1: traditional Jewish law requires bodies to be buried completely intact

674
00:37:56,480 --> 00:38:03,840
Speaker 1: and prohibits disturbing the dead. So SCI reached an agreement

675
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 1: with the Florida Attorney General's Office in two thousand and three,

676
00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:09,960
Speaker 1: and they said, we'll give you fourteen million dollars. We'll

677
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:14,280
Speaker 1: repair the plots, reorganize the cemeteries, properly mark all the graves,

678
00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:17,880
Speaker 1: and the grounds will be able to accommodate all plots soulds,

679
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:20,400
Speaker 1: so we'll stop over selling stuff. And then they had

680
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:23,400
Speaker 1: to settle a separate class action lawsuit on behalf of

681
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:27,040
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty families for one hundred million dollars.

682
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:30,560
Speaker 2: That sounds about right. I'm surprised it's actually not more.

683
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:36,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too. And there's another Jewish cemetery that was

684
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:38,279
Speaker 1: mishandled in California.

685
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:42,360
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, let's go back to September fourteenth, two thousand

686
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,680
Speaker 2: and nine. There was this class action lawsuit. It was

687
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 2: filed against SCI in this place called Eden Memorial Park.

688
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:53,280
Speaker 2: It was a Jewish cemetery managed by SCI in Mission Hills. Now,

689
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:58,560
Speaker 2: this class action lawsuit charged that this group SI and

690
00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 2: Memorial Park they were destroying graves to make room for

691
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:06,800
Speaker 2: new internments. And in February twenty fourteen there was another settlement,

692
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:11,440
Speaker 2: this time to the tune of eighty million dollars. Wow.

693
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 2: They are spending a lot of money on these lawsuits.

694
00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:17,279
Speaker 1: Right, and this is only scratching the surface. This is

695
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:20,120
Speaker 1: not a hit piece. You can check into each one

696
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,880
Speaker 1: of these stories, and while you're checking you will find

697
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 1: other stories of similar situations, many of which have been

698
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:31,040
Speaker 1: completely forgotten. Yeah right, you have to dig a little

699
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 1: to find them. Now, this may simply be a situation

700
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:38,880
Speaker 1: where in a corporation as large as SCI because of

701
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:43,239
Speaker 1: the way it acquires different smaller businesses. This may be

702
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:45,120
Speaker 1: a situation where it's just not able to keep an

703
00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:47,440
Speaker 1: adequate eye on every single thing.

704
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:49,680
Speaker 2: Right, right, That seems like a valid argument to me.

705
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:51,840
Speaker 2: I think that is, you know, you do have local

706
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:55,960
Speaker 2: I guess the families. If it's still run by these groups,

707
00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:59,520
Speaker 2: they're there on the ground all the time.

708
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 1: Right, and they're they're observing this stuff. So is there

709
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:09,000
Speaker 1: is it valid to say that maybe these cases get

710
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:12,799
Speaker 1: more attention because they're attached to s CI, which has deeper.

711
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:16,120
Speaker 2: Purse strings, or they all become associated as if they're

712
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:18,719
Speaker 2: all happening by the same people, when in fact it's

713
00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:23,960
Speaker 2: all individual groups that are just under the same letterhead, essentially.

714
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:27,320
Speaker 1: Right, like the way Rome conquered different countries and empires.

715
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 1: I also want to want to point out I should

716
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 1: have said deeper pockets, deeper purse strings doesn't make sense.

717
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,520
Speaker 2: I don't know, I dig it.

718
00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 4: It was really longer.

719
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:43,200
Speaker 1: I can't remember the last time I saw a purse string.

720
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:45,160
Speaker 4: That's just the strap that goes over your shoulder.

721
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:47,520
Speaker 1: No, the strings are like the draw strings, right for

722
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 1: a pouch.

723
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:49,480
Speaker 4: You know what though some of them do, some of

724
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 4: those fancy ones that they're woven in. They've got little

725
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 4: eyelids and you know, you pull the thing on the

726
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:55,520
Speaker 4: one side, cinches it right up.

727
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:58,320
Speaker 1: For a guy who doesn't own any purses, I'm somewhat

728
00:40:58,360 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 1: aware of this industry.

729
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:02,360
Speaker 2: You don't know any purses.

730
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 4: I don't.

731
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:05,239
Speaker 1: I don't. I feel like I feel like it's a

732
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:05,799
Speaker 1: weird thing.

733
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:07,920
Speaker 4: I feel, you know, back to what you said, Ben,

734
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 4: I feel like that's what a gentleman would have called

735
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:13,040
Speaker 4: his purse his pouch. His purse is his pouch. Yes,

736
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,360
Speaker 4: it's like an old timy leather gold bag.

737
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 2: Sounds about right to me.

738
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,759
Speaker 1: I was I was somewhere. I think it was williams Berg,

739
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:23,279
Speaker 1: and I saw I saw a guy walking with a

740
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:27,360
Speaker 1: with a bendle, with a stick and bendle and some pouches.

741
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 1: Sometimes I don't know, I don't know where he's going.

742
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,520
Speaker 4: That bendle was probably full of certified deposits from his daddy.

743
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:38,839
Speaker 2: Oh see, In my opinion, you always need to have

744
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 2: a few pouches to put your reagents in there if

745
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:44,520
Speaker 2: you're gonna cast in vos manny. I don't know, corpoor.

746
00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:47,399
Speaker 2: Maybe there are certain spells that you have to cast

747
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:49,279
Speaker 2: that you really need to make sure your reagents are on.

748
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:50,399
Speaker 4: You don't know what you're talking about.

749
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:52,480
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna just let it right out, Okay, cool

750
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 1: dig it.

751
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:58,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, uh, voss flamm this is very important.

752
00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:04,040
Speaker 2: Voss costs a significant number of reagents. And you need

753
00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 2: the Maana too.

754
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:06,480
Speaker 4: You gotta costs damn.

755
00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:09,399
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And also if like you're saying,

756
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:10,880
Speaker 2: if you know have your bendle, then that has all

757
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:12,880
Speaker 2: the manipotions. And how the heck are you going to

758
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 2: continue to cast all the spells. I mean, you can't

759
00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:16,600
Speaker 2: paralyze everybody.

760
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:18,959
Speaker 4: That has been our show. These are the real shows.

761
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:23,279
Speaker 4: I'd like to thank well. It would have been funny though,

762
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,040
Speaker 4: if we've done credits and that just continued. Yeah, doing

763
00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:27,799
Speaker 4: this nerd talk, which I love.

764
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:29,280
Speaker 1: What is that from?

765
00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:30,560
Speaker 2: That's all ultimate online?

766
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:32,400
Speaker 1: Okay. I didn't know if you were just winging it,

767
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:34,319
Speaker 1: but that was great, man, that was great.

768
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 4: Let's go.

769
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:38,480
Speaker 1: You know what, I know, when your birthday is you

770
00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:40,080
Speaker 1: might end up with some batches.

771
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:41,560
Speaker 2: Yes, Oh my god.

772
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:43,359
Speaker 1: Why did that feel like a threat in my head?

773
00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:44,239
Speaker 2: Anyway?

774
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: So, so here we are you know, we I think

775
00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:50,880
Speaker 1: we're being very fair to s ci when we're saying

776
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 1: these are the these are the things that could be

777
00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:57,400
Speaker 1: arguments made in their defense. But when we go to

778
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:00,280
Speaker 1: the question of what happens now, we see some scary

779
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:03,239
Speaker 1: stuff ahead. At least here in the United States, an

780
00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: aging population and a lower birth rate point towards some

781
00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:10,839
Speaker 1: disturbing trends. According to the US Census, older adults will

782
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,640
Speaker 1: outnumber children for the first time in this country's history

783
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:17,680
Speaker 1: by twenty thirty five, and citizens over sixty five will

784
00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 1: account for seventy eight million of the population. Children under

785
00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:24,840
Speaker 1: eighteen will account for seventy six point four million. The

786
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,920
Speaker 1: baby boomer generation is one of the largest generations in

787
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:31,720
Speaker 1: our country. We're not seeing a burst in population. We're

788
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,359
Speaker 1: seeing people have fewer children than maybe boomers, which means

789
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:37,120
Speaker 1: that a lot of people are going to pass away

790
00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:44,399
Speaker 1: in a smaller frame of time. This means that this

791
00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:50,600
Speaker 1: business will boom or the growth will continue, and the

792
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:52,880
Speaker 1: next time you find yourself dealing with the loss of

793
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:55,239
Speaker 1: a loved win or a need to engage the services

794
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:58,000
Speaker 1: of a funeral home or memorial home, you have to

795
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:01,040
Speaker 1: ask yourself who really owns it, and is that information

796
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:04,960
Speaker 1: something they don't want you to know. We didn't even

797
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:09,320
Speaker 1: get into the unscrupulous sales tactics. We talked about them. Yeah,

798
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:12,480
Speaker 1: but that's that's something else I would There's a fantastic

799
00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:16,160
Speaker 1: Reddit thread where in a funeral director describes some of

800
00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:18,840
Speaker 1: the stuff that they do. And you know, if you

801
00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:23,359
Speaker 1: are listening and you are in this industry, please know

802
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:26,360
Speaker 1: that we're not We're not saying one bad apple spoils

803
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:28,440
Speaker 1: the bunch. We're just saying that this is something a

804
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:32,600
Speaker 1: lot of people don't have too much experience with, thankfully, right, Yeah,

805
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:34,560
Speaker 1: and one would hope that continues to be the case.

806
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:37,680
Speaker 1: But you have to be aware that things are not

807
00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,320
Speaker 1: always what they appear to be in the strangest of places.

808
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:46,200
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And that's the end of this classic episode. If

809
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 2: you have any thoughts or questions about this episode, you

810
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:52,440
Speaker 2: can get into contact with us in a number of

811
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:54,520
Speaker 2: different ways. One of the best is to give us

812
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:59,120
Speaker 2: a call. Our number is one eight three three STDWYTK.

813
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:01,319
Speaker 2: If you don't want to do that, you can send

814
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:02,800
Speaker 2: us a good old fashioned email.

815
00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:06,960
Speaker 3: We are conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

816
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:09,400
Speaker 2: Stuff they don't want you to know is a production

817
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

818
00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:17,000
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.