Cities Too Poor To Bury Dead

In morgues across the country the corpses of dead poor are stacking up as the the government runs out of money to bury them. State and county budgets for interring indigent and unclaimed bodies have been drying up faster than usual in the current economy, as more families are unable to come up with the money to lay their loved ones to rest.

CNN's Assignment Detroit project released a report Thursday detailing how 67 people lie in wait at the Wayne County morgue. Unemployment, at a staggering 28% in Detroit, prevents many from affording to provide their family members a final resting place, and Detroit's $21,000 annual budget to bury unclaimed bodies ran out three months ago. More bodies are being left to the control of the state, who are having a harder time picking up the slack.

Detroit may be over-exposed as a cite of poverty porn, but stacks of stagnant bodies rotting in city buildings offer a bleak picture of the city's ability to provide for its most vulnerable citizens. Carl Schmidt, Wayne County's chief medical examiner, noted the despair of the condition. "There are many people with sad lives," he said, "But it is even sadder when even after you are dead, there is no one to pick you up."

But it's not just Detroit. In Jefferson County, Alabama, the state has only recently resumed burying the indigent and unclaimed, reports al.com. The county has been unable to afford to pay its employees who handle burials and grave maintenance since August, but some hospitals have started footing the bill until the county can afford to continue their services.

The state of Illinois faced similar fears as its Department of Human Services announced in June that it would be unable to continue paying for burial or funeral services. Budget cuts, reported the State Journal-Register, had shredded the $15 million the state annually puts aside to bury the approximate 10,000 corpses it takes care of. In August, the state rescinded, and approved $12.6 million for those purposes, which affords $1,655 per indigent burial, according to a report by the Southern, much to the delight of cemeteries and funeral homes. Funeral homes still absorb some costs to bury the unclaimed, but the load is much lighter. "It was going to become a big financial burden," said Tony Cox, coroner of Gallatin County.

The state's backup plan -- relying on funeral homes and cemeteries -- was ultimately an appeal to charity; they are not legally bound to provide interment services, said Harvey Lapin, general counsel for the Illinois Cemetery and Funeral Home Association. The state barely avoided that option.

"One way we look back at a culture is how they dispose of their dead," said Schmidt. "We see people here that society was not taking care of before they died -- and society is having difficulty taking care of them after they are dead."

Comments

[chasedeconomy]

Everything but the little people have become too big to fail

good articles; http://iamned.blogspot.com

Everyday we pay the consequences of Reaganomics

[PWM]

All we need to do is build one less Nuke Submarine and bury, or cremate, our dead.

[FreedomCorpse]

It is all karma. The previous administration lied about Iraq and sent our honorable military there (except the brass who allowed the lie to live) and over a million people were killed over all this time, millions fled the country as refugees....now the dead come and haunt the country that allowed such criminal disregard for truth, justice and liberty for all in direct violation of its own US Constitution.

[Name Not In Use]

The people are dead.

With all due respect ....
Run them through the local hospital incinerator.

Problem solved.

Ashes to ashes.

It's all the same in the end, anyway.

If we, as a society, don't care where how many trillions of dollars of "bailout" money went we shouldn't care about how we dispose of medical waste from a nursing home.

[LCLA]

Why are we insisting these bodies need to be buried?
Cremation would be a more responsible and logical choice.
Cremation has the advantages that it is sanitary, economical, and does not waste valuable real estate.

[symbolisme]

Well, we certainly don't want to waste valuable real estate in disposing of America's lost
souls, now do we? So cremation's the way to go, says LCLA. It's a kind of perverted definition of "ashes to ashes", reducing it to a "a sanitary and economical" way of disposal... And "with all due respect"... running bodies them through the hospital incinerators as the most efficient mode of disposal is like consigning these lives to some sort of delusional realism that you can easily dispense with. No political or moral ramifications need apply.

These people had lives. They lived. We might asess those lives as ultimately useless, meaningless,
but frankly we're the last ones who should be making the call on the importance or significance of their lives,, or what they deserve as a ceremonial end.

[Gernuser]

To make matters far worse, consider what the US government has actually done to fix the underlying problems? Nothing

good articles; http://iamned.blogspot.com

The government has put the same punch bowl out that got us into the mess in the first place. More debt and consumption and don't worry about paying it back. (Berbnanke= Greenspan II)

[rissole]

May God bless America.

[duckfan00]

Wow!! If only there was a Charles Dickens author out there to describe and put in words what is happening today...free medical clinics where thousands of people turn out for assistance....many turned away to live in pain and anguish...but each Goldman Sachs associate will take home close to a million dollar bonus this Christmas season....

[PNG]

Attention: 'Democrats' and 'Republicans'

The fascism that has taken since 1946 to build was helped by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, paving the way for our rights as humans to be summarily sacrificed for total dominance in revenue and territory. It's corporate fascism that is your enemy..not 'Democrats' or 'Republicans'. Your 'party' is an illusion, and a distraction.

'Elections' are no more legitimate than merely choosing a 'product' (candidate) the you choose by 'brand' (Democrat/­­­­Republi­c­a­n­). They are all on the take, and we have no choice.. as the choice is also an illusion as well.

This is the New INGSOC ('1984', George Orwell) : Weakening of public will through misdirecti­­­­on/misi­n­f­o­rmat­io­n, ignorance and sloth. By causing hardship, or enabling it, it addles ones ability to think clearly by using fear as an aggregate.

Both parties suck , as they are in the pocket of Corporations.

The more you folks wake up out of your self-induced coma, the more pissed you will be. In stating that however, many folks, both 'conservative', and 'liberal' don't want to face the reality that their 'representative' is a walking facade; a corporate product designed to support the policies that will aide in their revenue expansion. Especially at the expense of the populace.

We matter not at all. These bodies will soon be us. In the living...and in the shadows

[ChibiOne]

This is the most crucial point. All of the politicians in office are on the take. Money is what runs our government right now. There is no practical difference between state power and private enterprise at this point, only businesses with enough money to lobby and those without.

We can continue to debate all of the other issues we feel divide us after we have taken care of this issue. Right now, those other debates are being purposefully twisted and used to divide us before our exploiters, so we fight one another rather than the people stealing the country.

Put aside your disagreements for now. Let's unite on this common ground. Surely we can all agree on this one point: politicians should not be able to accept money or donations of any kind from anyone. They are responsible for representing the will of their constituents, not only those with enough money to donate.

[whoknew42]

HOLY SH*T!

[JoeBlough]

Don't lose sight of the fact that these people are dead and don't really care anymore.

[RyKi]

My thoughts exactly, you don't hear them complaining.

[Plissken]

Detroit is the product of the failing automotive industry and Reganomics. All of America is firmly in the grip of Reganism, so you can pretty much point that direction for most of our problems. I know it's popular to blame the unions, but they are the easily the smallest factor in the demise of Detroit (and the entire U.S. for that matter).

[jestanle]

Detroit is the end product of ultra liberal thought and policy.

[ibsteve2u]

Did anybody ever tell you about how simply making a pronouncement doesn't make a truth?

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

You're very, very confused. Since 1980, I defy you to show me an example of how "ultra liberal" thought or policy has hurt Detroit. You're just parroting nonsense syllables here.

[jestanle]

Wow really? Detroit is imploding with out of control unemployment, crime and taxes. You stand in the face of reason and repeat your belief in liberal dogma. Riots, nonexistent city services, and poor schools accelerated the exodus of Detroit's middle class tax base black and white. In the last 20 years, not a SINGLE Republican has served in city government asides from a few minor comptroller positions — conservative state politicians have been alone in proposing solutions to Detroit ' s crisis. In1990, GOP governor John Engler passed a series of sweeping welfare reforms that have lifted thousand of Detroiters into meaningful lives of work. He also spearheaded the creation of state "renaissance zones" — impoverished areas designated tax-free in order to lure business development. In 1998, Engler made a deal with the city to reduce its job-crippling, non-resident income tax from 1.5 to .5 percent over ten years in exchange for increased revenue-sharing from the state. At every turn, these reforms were met by fierce resistance from state and city Democrats and their entrenched union allies. Now Michigans present idiotic democrat governor has simply moved on and forgotten about Detroit and it's ills. You sir are deluded so put down the kool aid.

[monk2000]

Yes they did/do

[Yaa]

Cremations are so much cheaper. Surely some of these officials are clever enough to initiate such a easy solution to this problem that ought not be a problem.