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Get Rid Of The Government, Market And Cultural Tripartite Failure Of The Dilemma

Posted on:2013-01-17Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:F ZhaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:2176330434972633Subject:MPA
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
It is generally believed that the domestic funeral industry of our country is now presenting an extremely serious situation of chaos. On the one hand the public strongly opposes the increasingly higher costs and poor quality of the funeral services; while increasingly suffers pressure from the ever-growing funeral service prices. On the other hand, the image that the funeral industry enjoys huge profits by means of monopoly has been deeply rooted among the public and the funeral industry therefore, has been listed as China Top Ten Industries of Huge Profits for many years and suffering enough from public criticism.Regarding the general composition of public funeral consumption, usually the one-time acquisition cost for the grave used to bury the ashes of the dead occupies most part of the funeral cost as a whole. Therefore, calling the grave-related business aspect the most important part of the funeral industry is never an exaggeration. In the meantime the unacceptably high price of grave has always been the main target of criticism from people on the funeral industry. Thus, it is most necessary to start observing and analyzing the root cause of the high grave prices. Government authorities and the community share the common sense that breaking the monopoly of grave business dominated by government departments and putting an end to the chaos of high grave prices by means of the invisible hand of market is really a good medicine. In fact the related government departments, especially the civil affairs department are also actively promoting the process to break the monopoly of the industry. Confined however, by the negative factors in previous state-owned cemeteries such as single lineup of grave product, lack of innovation awareness and failure to realize an efficient allocation of land resources, etc, the specific administrative measures adopted currently by the government authorities in charge are allocation of land resources for cemetery construction based on market oriented ways such as auction, tender and agreements, etc, and attracting private capitals and even foreign capitals in stages and step by step to make them get involved in cemetery management so as to optimize the usage pattern of social resources by means of market deployment to achieve an ideal situation. But the reality deviates far from the track of development envisioned by people. As far as public feeling is concerned, the chaotic situation in this industry not only does not show any sign of coming to an end, on the contrary, there is an increasingly intensified tendency of an even rising grave price, which is more and more becoming a new pain in the heart of the public. Meanwhile, as purchasers and consumers of grave, only a very small part of ordinary people are willing to follow the Eco Funeral or Land Saving Funeral that are highly recommended by the government, while the rest, under the influence of cultural traditions of so-called Earth brings peach to the dead, tend to show irrational enthusiasm of involvement towards grave consumption. The above mentioned factors further maintain the tension between the supply and demand of land for cemetery, causing the grave sales prices to continuously soar.In the process of literatures review and observation into the grave operation situation, the funeral business development planning, the present situation of land resources and the existing land usage policies, it is not hard to find that the absolute scarcity of land resources for grave sites used in cemeteries is the main cause of the soaring grave sales prices. In this large background of reality, quite opposite to what the government authorities have originally intended, the marketization of funeral cemetery industry has actually led to a disguised form of monopoly operation. In the time of high land prices, the excessive capital profits created by the disguised form of monopoly operation are snatched by a particular social group, the costs of which are finally passed on to the government and the kidnapped common public, who have to unwillingly undertake them. The kidnapped common public however, driven by the traditional culture, involve themselves in the game of pursuing the grave products without any hesitation, or even passionately... The current operation situation of funeral cemetery industry shows that, in this "development dilemma", any expectations of unilaterally solving or alleviating the issues that the public faces through practice of the government-led administrative measures, market-oriented adjustments and relief by traditional culture are in vain in achieving the ideal form of society designed by the policy planners. This paper, based on related data collection, processing, a careful observation and analysis of current situation and combining a series of beneficial foreign policy experiences, launches a preliminary study on the three failures dilemma faced by the funeral cemetery industry that is closely related to all social people during this important historical period of social transformation, in order to enrich the existing government policy, realize a change in administration concept and present some corresponding policy advice and recommendations for the goal.
Keywords/Search Tags:funeral, monopoly, land resources, failure
PDF Full Text Request
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