Become a professional mourner!
Combining today's payrolls report with April 5's Private Equity: "Death Care Can Offer Growth Opportunities For Investors..." we get:
Why Professional Mourners Exist and What They Actually Do
While the term “professional mourner” might evoke images of paid actors over-the-top bawling at funerals, this is actually an ancient tradition spanning human history. In many parts of the world, paid mourning is a professional occupation. It’s not as uncommon as it sounds to an outsider's ears. In fact, you might be surprised to learn it’s practiced in the United States even today.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- What Are Professional Mourners (Moirologists)?
- Professional Mourners in Different Cultures
- How to Become a Professional Mourner
Though most places no longer employ professional mourners, they still are relatively common in many parts of the world. They serve a very important purpose as one of the many ways death in different cultures appears in unique ways....
And getting to the nitty-gritty:
....How Much Do Professional Mourners Make?
This varies wildly, according to the internet.
Job Monkey says you can make $30-$120 per funeral. But another website says you can make $35-$200 per hour. Yet another website says you can make about 300 yuan (or $42) for about 30 minutes of mourning.
The latter seems quite specific, so we can use that as a baseline. But the funeral proceedings in China are probably a bit different than ones in the US. For example, Eastern funeral proceedings last quite a long time, and groups of people take turns grieving. Whereas Western funerals generally involves some gathering/service/burial that lasts for a few hours....
And with excess mortality still running above 2015 -2019 baseline this should be an excellent side gig for years to come.
