In my opinion, small family-owned funeral homes have been one of the bastions for the perception of capitalism and free enterprise in America as long as they have been founded and operated.

However, as we move into today’s Election Day in America a recent Gallup Poll now states that 39% of our fellow Americans view Socialism positively.  The good news is that Capitalism is still seen “positively” by 54% of Americans.  However, back less than 10 years ago the same poll found Capitalism seen positively by 60% of Americans and Socialism seen positively by only 35% of Americans.

You can access the September 2025 Gallup Poll here.

Speaking of Election Day, today’s election result for Mayor of New York City may give some indications as to the validity of this Gallup Poll as the leading canditate in current polls, Zohran Mamdami, openly identifies as a “Democrat Socialist”.  Here’s a recent article on that from Notus.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

The Poll and the Funeral Business:  Rather than get into politics I would rather this column deal with how this shift in American opinion might affect the Death Care business.

Going back generations for many family funeral homes I’m guessing it was the idea of “capitalism” and of being in business on your own, where one’s own decisions and effort could affect the living, economic, and wealth creation of your own family, that was a major emphasis in “hanging out the shingle as an undertaker” or some other Death Care related business such as livery services.

In our family, it was 1872 Minnesota, only ten years after the Dakota Uprising and four years before Custer’s Last Stand, that my great-grandfather arrived in the frontier and set out on a business as a cabinet maker.  That business evolved into a furniture business and a funeral home business that continued in our family for four generations and 141 years.  Capitalism and free enterprise was front and center of the family and not a day goes by that I don’t thank my great-grandfather for his dreams, spirit, and work ethic.

And that foundation of capitalism and free enterprise broke out with a funeral home in virtually every big city and small hamlet in America during the latter half of the 19th Century.

This is where I’ll let you in on a little good news from the Gallup Poll.  While Americans positive feel for “Big Business” is continuing to decline with only a 37% “positive” rating as compared to a 58% “positive” rating in 2012, Americans’ perception of “Small Business” is much different.

The poll notes that Americans’ rate “Small Businesses” with a 95% “Positive” rating and rate the idea of “Free Enterprise” with an 81% “Positive” rating.

So, this poll is very much mixed in my opinion. . . .How does one explain a 39% “Positive” rating of Socialism and the same respondents show a 95% “Positive” rating for Small Business?  Might it be that people have different understandings of what those words mean?

One take I think a funeral home owner can take from this poll, however, is with “Small Businesses” and that 95% “Positive” rating. . . . I would expect that the advertising line of “Family-Owned” may still continue to mean something to the mass of potential clientele for some time moving forward.

More news from the world of Death Care:

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

New Gallup Honesty and Ethics Poll Shows Funeral Directors in “Net Positive” 

There’s plenty of data in Gallup’s 2025 Honesty and Ethics of Professions Ratings results to put a smile on the face of any funeral director. A “net positive” rating and an admirable ranking among the 23 included professions are just the start. And you shouldn’t let the fact that the news networks are using these results to decry the fact that Democrats are “held in lower esteem than lawyers, undertakers, and car salesmen” steal your sunshine.

The survey

From December 2-18, 2024, Gallup surveyed 1,0003 American adults from all 50 states, asking them how they would rate the honesty and ethical standards of the people in each of the 23 included occupations. The rating scale options were very high, high, average, low, or very low. 

The results placed those occupations in order of net percent high (high/very high rankings minus low/very low rankings) at the top, with nurses, grade-school teachers, military officers, pharmacists, and medical doctors all receiving 53% high or very high ratings and placing them in a “majority positive” section.

Funeral directors ranked seventh in the survey with a 37% high or very high rating, placing you in the “net positive category” above police officers, auto mechanics, clergy, and judges and trailing behind daycare providers. Directors also received a relatively small low/very low rating of 9%, which is lower than the low/very low rating of grade-school teachers and medical doctors. In 2021, funeral directors had a 39% high/very high rating, resulting in a 2% decrease.

On the very bottom of the list are the usual suspects: lobbyists, members of Congress, and TV reporters. Overall, reports Gallup, the list hasn’t changed much since the first survey in 2000 (incidentally, funeral directors weren’t added to the survey until 2018).

Four surveys

Over the last week, two of the major news networks shared the results of two separate surveys that indicated that Americans aren’t exactly happy with the job the Democratic party is doing. A CNN poll “put favorability at 29% — the lowest rating in the 33-year history of the survey” while an NBC News poll showed a 27% approval rating for the party.

To seemingly underscore the unbelievable horror of these results, some outlets took to comparing them to other survey results. For example, the New York Post said this:

• “Democrats have become so unpopular that more Americans believe that aliens are among us than agree with the Democratic Party,” and
• “Dems are now held in lower esteem than lawyers, undertakers, and car salesmen.”

The first quote references a 2020 survey about Americans’ belief in conspiracy theories (think: Sasquatch, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster), while the second refers to the previously-mentioned Gallup poll.

If their point is to make funeral directors feel inferior to (or at least as low as) the Democrats, it won’t work. You guys are trusted and ethical and amazing, and Gallup’s poll proves that.