I feel like I have finally found the right place for my rant. Why is it that every time someone dies there's a GFM campaign? At least tell me if there was life insurance. I have $400,000 of Life insurance for $21/month. It seems like it s the go-to now and I don't get it.
Also to my cousin with a GFM for his treecutting business, I'm glad you are clean and sober and haven't been in nail for 2+ years, but you're not getting any of my money.
The saddest GFMs are for murder victims who died at an early age such as the 4-year-old shot on the freeway by a repeat road-rage offender, or for police officers injured or killed in the line of duty. Although there are literally billions of dollars socked away in federal crime victim aid money, there's no way for the victims to get access to any of it. Most of it simply isn't spent, although a small amount goes to charities that purport to distribute the money to victims but tend to spend more on their own staff and administrators. Actual victims very seldom get a cent, while federal politicians feel free to raid the "unused" and "unneeded" victim aid money at will. Victim aid money was a cute idea that looked good on paper, but it's not helping actual crime victims.
Police officers in my city don't get their full pay for the time they spend in the hospital or rehabilitating, and when the spouse has to quit work in order to care for the injured person (because there's no money available for home aid), there's simply no money coming in for the family. One officer, who was shot repeatedly by his superior during a botched undercover operation almost a year ago, has needed multiple surgeries and still might not make it. He receives only partial pay, and his wife had to quit her job to care for him, but the man who shot him is on full pay during his "administrative leave". That's why funding has to come from the community.
Most families don't plan for a funeral of a very young person. Of course, in some communities and traditions it's verboten to plan for a funeral at all.
In an extreme enabler culture, people are raised to be either moochers or enablers. The enablers work very hard, but they never accumulate much because they, or the family members around them, live in a constant state of emergency. It's not considered socially acceptable to spend money on anything that isn't immediately useful. People believe they are morally obligated to get the maximum possible value for their money "now", or else to give it to a family member who "needs it more" due to being sick, out of work, addicted, or whatever. In fact, children are taught that it's morally wrong to have savings or investments of any kind if a family member is in need. Need always expands to consume and then exceed all available resources, so families like this invariably produce people who are nursing an addiction, or out of work, or just released from prison, or depressed/ill to the point where he or she "can't" work but is "too proud" to go on disability. It's deemed "selfish" if an able-bodied family member decides to pursue advanced education instead of dropping out of school to care for a sick, addicted, or injured elder member of the family, so there aren't many legal paths to a professional-class income.
When a person grows up in an extreme enabler culture, instead of accumulating money it's considered better to have things: clothing, electronics, furniture, or other stuff that could be exchanged for cash. So, it's hard for a person raised in such a tradition to understand the benefit of buying a prepaid cremation plan. They also don't like to buy insurance of any sort, since they consider it an unnecessary expense.
An elderly friend of mine passed away a year and a half ago. She and her family were part of an enabler culture. Despite the fact she'd been very sick for three full years, none of her six children had set aside so much as a cent to bury her. But the requirements of their religion were such that cremation wasn't acceptable, and even the cheapest coffin and service set them back about $5,000. I did chip in, but only because this old lady had been a friend of mine.