Given these outstanding accomplishments, much now depends on the level of performance of the Grim Reaper. Can he be counted on to do the job? Mortuary management was gloomy on this score, noting that due to medical advances in the treatment of cancer and heart disease, the death rate was bound to decline. Not so the brokerage houses and investment analysts. The Goldman Sachs brokerage house, analyzing their prospects, predicts a rosy future: "Aggregate deaths have increased at roughly 1.1 percent on a compound basis since 1940. . . . Going forward, the continued aging of the baby-boomers, coupled with an increasing proportion of people over age 65, should keep aggregate deaths rising. . . . The aging of America should enable the death care industry to experience extremely stable demand in the future."

—Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death