The comments about the (at times) unethical and (at other times) doubtfully-ethical practices mentioned about SCI’s sales management in the prior posts are accurate—I can affirm that, being an SCI employee of over 5 years now. But although I make only moderate income here, I refuse to leave, because I believe in this kind of work and I would be ceding the field to the corruptos. Moreover, someone has to watch the wolf and do one’s best to guard the naive. Many of the sales managers (not all) are two-faced liars and they have to be outed, which is a laborious process, and I have had to do my part. But the field needs honest people, or the liars will rule the roost. (They are infernally clever.) It is different also, for me, because I have decades of sales experience and know the ropes: I have also managed elsewhere, and I know how little power a manager really has—unless individuals cave in to their own fear and anxiety about themselves and do the deceptive managers’ dirty work for them. There is a lot of good in Dignity Memorial’s ideas and some of their costs have actually been lowered in the industry(for example, caskets and urns in general, compared to other chains and to individual funeral homes—I shop them all the time, so I know). Yes, direct cremation costs more than, say, a Neptune cremation, but I know quite a bit about certain cut-rate cremation providers, and they are ghastly operations with little oversight and terrible treatment of the families. It is important to “keep after” SCI/Dignity, because the biggest problem is the outrageous salaries they lavish on their managers, which is an practical invitation to illegal or unethical activity. Prices could be cut (and the ordinary worker bees’ salaries could be increased, but don’t get your hopes up too much for that!). Mainly, I just feel people should get prepared, because we are all going to be leveled by Sister Death, and so we might as well get ready to take her by the hand.