Lincoln Changed the Course of the American Funeral Industry

Lincoln Changed the Course of the American Funeral Industry

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 678 , Segment 5

Episode: Avoiding Taxes, Starving Education to Feed Retirement

  • Nov 9, 2017
  • 16:30 mins

Guest: Brian Walsh, MFA, Assistant Professor of Communications, Elon University, Documentary Filmmaker  Funerals in America often involve a viewing, where mourners pay respects to a body that’s been preserved to look more or less like the person did when alive. But, around the world, embalming is not necessarily standard practice. And, it wasn’t always typical in America, either. In fact, we have President Abraham Lincoln to thank for what we’ve come to think of a traditional American funeral.

Other Segments

Starving Education to Feed Retirement

16 MINS

Guest: Richard Vague, Managing Partner, Gabriel Investments, Author, “The Next Economic Disaster”  When you’re cutting up a pie, and you’ve got more people to serve than you expected, one solution is to make each piece a little smaller, right? But what if you already promised someone a certain-sized slice and if you try to trim it a bit you’re gonna have a ruckus at the table? Well, then you’ll probably have to make the rest of the slices even smaller.  This is the situation state and local governments across the country find themselves in. They’ve guaranteed to fund pensions for government employees and Medicaid, and as those costs grow, who gets a smaller piece of the pie? Mostly education and infrastructure. That shows in America’s deteriorating roads and bridges and the poor international ranking of our school system.

Guest: Richard Vague, Managing Partner, Gabriel Investments, Author, “The Next Economic Disaster”  When you’re cutting up a pie, and you’ve got more people to serve than you expected, one solution is to make each piece a little smaller, right? But what if you already promised someone a certain-sized slice and if you try to trim it a bit you’re gonna have a ruckus at the table? Well, then you’ll probably have to make the rest of the slices even smaller.  This is the situation state and local governments across the country find themselves in. They’ve guaranteed to fund pensions for government employees and Medicaid, and as those costs grow, who gets a smaller piece of the pie? Mostly education and infrastructure. That shows in America’s deteriorating roads and bridges and the poor international ranking of our school system.