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August 15, 2010

Video: Free the monks and free enterprise

Topics: Human Interest, Political News and commentaries

Abbot Justin Brown and his fellow monks at Saint Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict, Louisiana are being threatened with crippling fines and even jail time. Their only crime? Selling caskets. Why is it a crime? Because the Louisiana funeral industry cartel has no interest in competition, even from a small group of monks. Under Louisiana law, it is a crime for anyone but a licensed funeral director to sell "funeral merchandise," which includes caskets.

So, the monks are fighting back, with the help of The Institute for Justice. As noted in the video, bureaucrats and special interests are so out of control in America, not even monks are safe - and if monks aren't safe, what does that say about the rest of us? :

From Big Government (emphasis added):

[...] To sell caskets legally, the monks would have to convert their monastery into a "funeral establishment" which means adding all sorts of needless equipment for things like embalming human remains. Further, the monks would have to apprentice with a cartel member for a full year and then take a government-approved casket test.

Keep in mind, a casket is just a box.

Curiously, in Louisiana it is perfectly legal to bury a human body straight into the ground. You can also wrap a bed sheet around a human body and bury it. And you can make your own casket. Or you can use a casket made by a friend or stranger - so long as you don't pay for it.

But it's illegal to pay for a casket - unless that casket is made by a member of the cartel.

This March, the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors subpoenaed two members of the Saint Joseph Abbey - Abbot Justin Brown and Deacon Mark Coudrain. If found guilty, the Abbot and Deacon will be subject to 180 days in jail and thousands of dollars in fines.

To clarify: The funeral cartel in Louisiana is attacking monks that make simple caskets for people that want them, which helps cover the cost of the monks' monastic lifestyle. And for the "sin" of selling these caskets, the monks face crippling fines and even jail.

If monks are being attacked, nobody is safe.

Read more...

Ed Morrissey writes:

Here is the test one should apply. Does anyone think that the abbey's caskets would be significantly improved by purchasing embalming equipment? Will a year studying funeral home processes and procedures make simple pine boxes any more reliable than they are now? If the answer is no to these questions -- and no one is complaining, apparently, about the abbey's products -- then the licensing requirement is nothing more than protectionism for a cabal of funeral homes that prefer to keep consumers locked into products with high markup in their own parlors.

Louisiana voters should demand change in the state's licensing laws to allow the monks and others to sell caskets while ensuring that funeral homes perform other services properly. Government restrictions on private enterprise should do no more than protect consumers from actual fraud while allowing the greatest amount of competition and market entry possible.

Common sense, indeed, but no one ever accused bureaucrats and politicians of putting common sense and the electorate in front of special interests. Still, one would think that somewhere along the way the State of Louisiana would have taken just a moment to apply a little bit of common sense and tell the embalmer cartel not just no on the law suit, but hell no.

As noted in a Fox News report, the lawsuit points out that do-it-yourself casket plans are available on the Internet and independent casket retailers offer discounts. Wal-Mart began selling caskets on the Internet in 2009. Yet monks can't sell handmade wooden caskets to support themselves.

Go figure!

Posted by Richard at August 15, 2010 7:55 PM

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• Video: Free the monks and free enterprise - Aug 15, 2010