"Relevant Market" and the Death Biz

Tyler Cowen highlights two fascinating factoids from the New York Times (link):

In 1900, Americans spent nearly twice as much on funerals as on medicine, and less than 2 percent of Americans took vacations.

Here’s one possible connection: entertainment. Funerals are theatre: sometimes elaborate, mawkish overdone theater, but theater anyway. In a world without HBO (and no trips Mount Rushmore), a good funeral could be a sight to see.

There’s a deep-seated cultural conviction that the funeral industry preys on the irrationality and the vulnerability of those stricken by grief (see, e.g., link). It probably does; that’s what happens to the irrational and the vulnerable. Yet the remarkable fact is that complaints about the funeral industry just don’t seem as important as they were a generation ago. What with the rise in cremation and of low-end no-frills disposal services, the high-end funeral begins to look more and more like discretionary consumer expenditure, like a Hummer.

There may be a tendency to write this transition off to changing tastes. Maybe, but I wonder if there is as role for simple competition: the funeral industry may not be competitive, but the entertainment industry is. As the catchphrase goes, what are you going to do next? I’m going to Disney World!

Fn.: And why not (link)?