Outsourcing Funeral Guests: makes perfect sense to economists
You’ve just lost a loved one. You are exhausted dealing with all of the arrangements. You are in emotional turmoil. You are hurt. You are angry. You are sad. The funeral is in a few hours and you just don’t have the energy or mind set to “wail, scream and create the anguished sorrow befitting a proper funeral.”
It turns out you are not alone and where there is demand in a free market there will be supply. You hire a professional griever–part of a thriving mourning business in Taiwan. Demand intersects supply at about $600 for a 1/2 day funeral (5 grievers). (Feel free to insert a living wage joke here.)
H/T to Marginal Revolution for reminding us that there are indeed markets in everything, including funeral guests.
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November 17th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
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