The Price of Parting: Necropolitics and the Commodification of Death
"Necropolitics is not just about the application of violence, but the dominance of all forms of living to make the individual believe their existence is tenuous." — Achille Mbembe
In America, we are told that "death is the great equalizer." But if you look at the ledger of the modern funeral industry, you’ll see that equality ends where the invoice begins.
We have moved away from death as a communal rite of passage and toward a funeral industrial complex. This isn't just about inflation; it’s about necropolitics—the use of social and political power to dictate how some people may live and how some must die—and, ultimately, how they are allowed to be remembered.
The Capitalist Ledger of Grief
The current state of the death industry in the U.S. is a stark example of a captured market. When we are at our most vulnerable—blinded by the fog of loss—we are met not with community support, but with a General Price List (GPL).
- The Median Cost: As of 2026, a traditional funeral with viewing and burial averages around $8,300, but
experts warn - The Illusion of Choice: Large corporations like Service Corporation International (SCI) often buy small family funeral homes while keeping the original name, creating a façade of local care while implementing corporate pricing structures.
- Funeral Poverty: A growing crisis where families are forced into debt or "crowdfunded burials" just to provide basic dignity to their loved ones.
Necropolitics and Marginalized Deaths
The right to a dignified burial has become means-tested. For marginalized communities, particularly Black and LGBTQ+ populations, the industry of death often mirrors the systemic inequalities of life.
When the cost of burial exceeds a family's yearly savings, death becomes a final act of dispossesion. Historically segregated cemeteries are often left to crumble without the perpetual care funds afforded to more affluent (and often white) spaces. This is the ultimate erasure: when you cannot afford the maintenance fee of memory, your history is literally reclaimed by the weeds.
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| Marginalized communities suffer the most when we commodify our grief practices. |
Reclaiming the Ritual
How do we push back against the commodification of our dead? It starts by acknowledging that honoring a life should not require a predatory loan.
Death Literacy: Understanding your rights under the
FTC Funeral Rule Community-Centered Care: We must look toward "death positivity" and green burial options that prioritize the planet and the person over the mahogany casket.
Political Advocacy: Supporting organizations like the
Funeral Consumers Alliance
The Final Accounting: Reclaiming the Sacred
When we allow the act of parting to be reduced to a line item on a corporate balance sheet, we lose more than just money—we lose a piece of our collective soul. The tragedy of necropolitics in America is that it turns our final transition into a debt-trap, ensuring that systemic inequality follows us even into the earth. But we can choose to resist the commodification of our grief. By demanding transparency, embracing community-led rituals, and centering the lives of the marginalized over the profits of the industry, we begin to dismantle the funeral industrial complex. True dignity isn't found in a $5,000 mahogany casket or a perpetual care contract; it is found in the way we show up for one another, in the stories we tell, and in the refusal to let a capitalist machine dictate the value of a human life.
It is time we stop paying for the "privilege" of memory and start practicing the radical, free, and ancient art of simply honoring our dead.
