text: Over 40 years ago, Jessica Mitford wrote the American Way of Death which was an expose of the funeral industries behaviour, costs et al.....
  
  I thought of it when I read your comment....
  
  I have buried both parents...one in a casket with all those liners etc that you note, one cremated.....
  Both are buried today in a Catholic cemetary nearby, along with a son of ours. And both had  masses, simple receptions etc which I found very comforting. A smart priest who said my moms memorial mass suggested that we find photos, scrapbooks etc...we did and it was great.
  
  There is a part of me though, that thinks that particularly the costs associated with the casket flower blanket over the casket, etc...could have been far better spent on the poor here or in undeveloped countries.....and that cremation was more appropriate.
  
  Perhaps we need to rethink these matters....