I too, found myself emotional and perhaps a little agitated when reading the recent article Waste Management- Of the Human Body. Yes, deathcare is expensive. Yes, there should be more government support services for the disposition of human remains, whatever form that takes. There should also be better wages for funeral directors and staff, more clarity about the challenges of safely & humanely processing a body, and the encouragement of advanced planning for death care among families and individuals. Yes, there are existing pay-ahead programs that allow one to pay ahead for funeral and disposition services, and are comparably priced to your monthly streaming service subscription bundle.
These things are all true, and they are important conversations to spark and to continue.
These things also lack nuance, context, and empathy when we offer them at face value, and fail to account for the realities of living in a country which does not value life, and is in fact set up to disadvantage and impoverish many of us.
Death, by it’s very nature, brings grief, transformation, and upheaval, for loved ones, for neighbors, colleagues, and communities. Death, whether we like to admit it or act accordingly, is very much a communal process, and our cultural, social, and political failure to acknowledge it as such is harming all of us.
Death, by it’s very nature, brings grief, transformation, and upheaval, for loved ones, for neighbors, colleagues, and communities. Death, whether we like to admit it or act accordingly, is very much a communal process, and our cultural, social, and political failure to acknowledge it as such is harming all of us.
We are currently living in an economic upset1, if not full on crisis. The cost of living2 has skyrocketed. Who can afford to die in times like these? Genuinely, I ask you – who can actually afford to die in 2026? Our national healthcare system is beyond it’s breaking point, with workers leaving the industry3 in droves, privatization cannibalizing already ineffective and inaccessible systems, and public health messaging4 at arguably it’s lowest efficacy in decades.
We are drowning in science and health misinformation and a lack of available healthcare providers. Hiring is down across industries, and unemployment is prolific. Since health insurance in the United States is generally tied to employment, we can imagine how many are uninsured currently. We also know that even those with insurance often struggle to afford basic office visit copays, let alone specialist fees, surgeries, procedures, or personalized medical devices. Comprehensive paid sick leave, or paid time off5 of any type, is not the norm for most US6 employees, especially in early career stages.
Long COVID, whether you believe in it or not, is now the number one7 chronic illness for children, so we can imagine that it is also affecting adults in some way, which may lead to loss of employment, loss of insurance, loss of housing. Government assistance and social service programs have been slashed8 nationally, state-wide, and locally, and already strained and insufficient support funds are being drained without hope of being replenished. In King County alone, government funds are being mismanaged and stolen at worst, and unable to keep up with demand at best.
If you’ve ever worked in case management or housing services, you know that to even qualify for many housing support services, you have to be without safety net of any kind, and hope that you might be approved in time for what little aid exists, usually in an amount unable to provide stable and consistent housing. The way disabled people are treated is an excellent example of government inefficiency, ignorance, and harm.
“Ugly Laws”9 existed up until the ’70s, preventing those with visible/obvious disabilities from even existing in public, and we know that versions of those laws are playing out today in the way that unhoused people10 are being criminalized, and community integration programs for disabled people are being dismantled. Beyond that, the physical inaccessibility of most buildings, sidewalks, and transportation services prevents disabled people from experiencing public services even when not prohibited by legalized stigma, and a general lack of reliable public transportation and specialized programs makes accessing community and healthcare nearly impossible for many.
Disability has a socioeconomic impact. Race has a socioeconomic impact. Gender has a socioeconomic impact. Thanks to Kimberle Crenshaw, we also know that Intersectionality11 can exponentially amplify the impact of what are seemingly individual identities.
We haven’t even discussed the environment: Do you have a data center in your backyard? Can you be sure your water is safe to drink? Do you have a generator to guarantee you’ll have power for your medical devices if a storm comes? Can you afford to replace your food or shelter if they’re destroyed? Do you live in a food desert? Another Fred Meyer is closing in Tacoma, and we can already anticipate the health impact that will have on the community. What of the jobs that are lost to data centers and the closing of grocery stores? How do those people survive, keep healthcare, keep themselves alive? Who should bear those costs? The government? The companies and corporations? The people? How can one plan for death when every element of their quality of life is being threatened, destabilized, or eliminated?
Another Fred Meyer is closing in Tacoma, and we can already anticipate the health impact that will have on the community. What of the jobs that are lost to data centers and the closing of grocery stores? How do those people survive, keep healthcare, keep themselves alive? Who should bear those costs? The government? The companies and corporations? The people? How can one plan for death when every element of their quality of life is being threatened, destabilized, or eliminated?
White supremacy12 culture flattens the realities of death and the complexities of accessing care to stay alive. Either/Or thinking and a belief that because things “have always been this way” creates a cultural mindset that we cannot change the way things are. A fear of discomfort and the defensiveness we often witness when people are confronted with the harsh realities of how challenging it is to live and die in this country cause the conversations to falter and stall.
We are often led to believe that structural problems—which have been intentionally caused—require individual solutions or local government bandaids, and I believe that this approach is doing us a disservice, and is allowing the responsible parties to shirk responsibility. I also believe that this misinformed focus creates a cognitive dissonance that is hard to combat, and we need to be able to change minds to create the kind of communities that are interested in, and know how to, honor the transition to death.
Our national refusal to confront the grief of continued war, colonization, environmental destruction, hatred, oppression, and fear based systems that serve to sustain hate, have created a frustrating vacuum where we struggle to even name a thing for what it is, and also believe that just talking about a thing and pointing fingers at some distant ‘government daddy’ will somehow lead to a solution. I’m interested in how we take action to combat the dehumanizing, capitalism fueled aspects of death care, and to relearn how to enable and empower one another to live with dignity and access to our basic needs, so that death is not as traumatizing, financially destructive, and terrifying.
I’m interested in how we take action to combat the dehumanizing, capitalism fueled aspects of death care, and to relearn how to enable and empower one another to live with dignity and access to our basic needs, so that death is not as traumatizing, financially destructive, and terrifying.
We cannot be surprised that humans are financially, emotionally, and mentally unprepared to go through the process of facilitating the transition of another human’s body. We do not encourage transparency, autonomy, or community support in life, and we (as a society) do not make living easy to access or maintain for most. Simply staying alive is a Sisyphean task, an expensive rat race that many are not meant to win. Gaining or maintaining health is nearly impossible in a polluted climate, and in a context where healthcare is paywalled and geographically inaccessible for most.
I agree that we cannot afford to keep avoiding the conversation about death, and I implore us all to find ways to be accountable for what it costs. I encourage you to talk with your loved ones about what they need right now to make living easier (food, money, shelter, understanding, purpose, access), and to talk about how you all will prepare for death—emotionally, financially, and as a community who must grieve and recover to keep changing our world.
The way we pay for death must change.
NOTES:
1. This is how close American households are to the financial edge, NPR, May 28, 2026
2. Nearly 25% of U.S. Workers are “Functionally Unemployed”, Economic Analysis Finds, CBS News, August
24, 2026
3. Study Shows Increase in Government Healthcare Workers Leaving the Public Workforce, University of
Michigan, March 24 2026
4. Health Misinformation, U.S.Department of Health and Human Services
5. Paid leave benefits: Average number of sick and vacation days by length of service requirement, U.S Bureau
of Labor Statistics March 2025
6. The U.S. Is One of Only 9 Countries Without Guaranteed Vacation Time, Axios, July 2 2026
7. Long COVID in Young Children, School Aged Children, and Teens, JAMA Pediatrics, May 27 2025
8. Trump Administration Freezes Billions in Social Service Funding to 5 Democratic States, CNN, Jan 6, 2026
9. Illegal to be Ugly? The History Behind One of America’s Cruelest Laws, National Geographic
10. Two Years Since Grants Pass: Tracking the Criminalization of Homelessness, ACLU, 2026
11. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color, JSTOR-
Kimberle Crenshaw, July 1991
12. Characteristics – White Supremacy Culture, Tema Okun, February 2025
