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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Monks and Coffins: A Free Enterprise Story

A free enterprise story from my little town has made the Wall Street Journal. If you haven't seen it, here it is. Goliath (Louisiana Funeral Industry) vs. David (monks trying to earn some money by making coffins).

I taught Shakespeare at the college attached to the monastery for a few years. Although I quit the job and said farewell to the students without a backward glance, I LOVED the monks, especially the Abbot mentioned in the article.

Are you on Team Funeral Industry or Team Monastery?

4 comments:

Jenna said...

That is like $40,000/year. Is the industry really going to sue monks over such a little amount. I'm not a big fan of breaking the law, but I'm definitely rooting for the Monks on this one.

Frugal Scholar said...

@Jenna--After watching "Six Feet Under," I have a sense of how overpriced caskets are!

Shelley said...

There are some wonderful phrases in there, I bet the author had a blast putting in all those puns. My favourite though is "They make us look greedy." Anyone who has ever paid for a funeral knows that death is big business. Who could be for anyone but the monks - the side of the angels as it were?

Frugal Scholar said...

@Shelley--So poetic!