What are we thinking in buying caskets?

A pine box would be ever so much more earth-friendly. Now, if we could do away with embalming, I would be a happy camper!

For all of you who answered and said funeral homes push expensive caskets on people, you are wrong. That is just plain stupid, why would I encourage a family to purchase something that I know they cannot pay for?? Then the only person who suffers is me because I didn't get paid!!! I leave the choice completely up to the family, if they decide on an expensive one, fine, if they choose an inexpensive one, thats fine, too. It is a matter of personal preference and financial obligations. I have talked people OUT of getting an expensive casket because I knew they could not afford it. And yes, you can get a plain pine box, there are no requirements about what they must be lined with, as someone else said. Some people choose very nice caskets because they want their loved one in the very best, while others believe ashes to ashes, dust to dust. It is all personal preference!!!!!!!!!!

Localities have laws about what you must be buried in, and it's not about money, it's about public health. (Ever have a dog dig up a kid's buried pet? Aaaackkk!)

I don't think your husband can have a plain pine box, nor do I think you'll want him to. They must be lined in certain ways, though the frills are probably optional.

I don't understand why some choose burial at all, though that's certainly their right. For me and mine, I choose cremation.

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***EDIT***

Those who think it's the after-death choices people make are humerous, obviously have never had to make such decisions about someone whose face they looked on adoringly yesterday, but today must choose how to dispose of. They are not simple choices. Except for the very poor, at least where I live, who have only the option of having their loved one cremated, their ashes mixed with others, and anonymously scattered at an unknown time by a stranger. (The next cheapest option is $1,000.) Yes, they are just bodies, but they still look like your sister or your son or your mother, and the choices are hard.

Pine box for me too! I think there's a monastery in Iowa that makes simple pine coffins and you can order one from them. Otherwise funeral homes will push super expensive fancy coffins on you when you're planning your loved one's funeral. But I've never understood the appeal of fancy caskets and coffins. What really amuse me are coffins that have mattresses and pillows. I guess we don't want the corpse to get a back ache . . . .

Caskets have become quite elaborate and expensive, and there is definitely a factor of guilt/pride in purchasing the more elaborate caskets.

However, with that being said, many areas now have laws about the "disposal" of human bodies, to avoid any health hazards. So people are supposed to be buried in containers that will keep the contents from leaching into the soil, the drinking water, etc.

Funeral homes can put the family on a guilt trip and they'll spend more than they need to. I won't even need the pine box, because I'll be cremated.

It's just a societal thing. These days, there are worlds of choices, but some people can't get past thinking that they should be pumped full of chemicals, put in a box, and stuck in the ground like pirate treasure.

i think people buy a certain type of casket to prove to others how much the dead person meant to them . like, you spend 10,000 dollars and that means you really loved the person. pretty stupid. we buried my dad in a pine box because thats the kind of person he was --plain , honest and straight-forward. once the person is gone, its too late to show him or her how much you care.

Mostly guilt, that's why the funeral folks urge you to buy the most expensive one for your departed loved one. By pass it all and get cremated.