Blackfive posts on Military benefits

In response to a post on Blackfive about the HEROES Act, I had some thoughts:

I'm actually fine with the SGLI where it's at. It was recently (a few years ago) raised from $100k maximum. Look at how much life insurance the average person carries, and I think that SGLI comes out reasonably well. Especially for what it costs. The death benefit could be a little more, but it's essentially intended to cover the cost of a funeral. I'm sorry, but if you spend MUCH more than $12k on a funeral, you're wasting your money. I'd much rather they slapped me into a pine box and buried me in the back yard and have a picnic for my wake. I know that's not entirely practical, but the principle stands that funerals are for the living, not the dead. As for the spouse benefit, granted, it's not much. But at slightly over half of the amount the member would've made, are they really losing anything? I mean the loss of the loved one is the blow, not the money. And all this is dependant upon a somewhat archaic idea that only the servicemember is responible for supporting the family, when in fact many spouses now work also, and in some cases, make more money than the servicemember.

To sum up, I'm okay with this bill, but I'm not up in arms about the way things are now, either. A quarter million dollars in insurance is enough to pay off most people's house, or to send a number of kids through college. It's enough of a cushion to get the family through some financial hard times brought on by losing the primary bread-winner, not a lottery ticket means to grand comfort. Same with the death benefit- nothing can compensate for the loss of a loved one, the whole point is merely to alleviate the financial burden.