OPINION -- Being wealthy does not excuse wastefulness
Maleria Brown
Managing Editor
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Some celebrities take the expression "If you've got it, flaunt it" to the extreme through their lavish lifestyles.
Shows like VH1's "The Fabulous Life of" give us insight into the fabulous lives of celebrities and how they spend their millions. Sometimes I'm just disgusted by what I see on these shows. Celebrities are dropping cash like there's no tomorrow.
Examples include rappers spending millions of dollars on customized sneakers, grills (mouth jewelry), and tricked-out cars. Other examples of wasteful spending include stars like Madonna and Oprah paying $10,000 for a pair of diamond-encrusted mink eyelashes, Usher spending $7,500 on a birthday cake, and P-Diddy spending $3 million on an unforgettable birthday bash. I was appalled to see that Jessica Simpson spent $75,000 on bed sheets and Hip hop star Baby buys a whole new fleet of cars every year all the same color.
Celebrity super-spending has just gotten ridiculous. Rapper Big Boi of Outkast tried to have gold teeth put into his dog's mouth. It's like they are all competing to see who can spend the most cash on the most silly venture or gadget. These people think that being able to pay millions of dollars for homes, transportation, and clothes solidifies that they have made it big in the world of entertainment.
I realize that these people work hard for their millions and that they should be able to spend it anyway that they like. I'm just suggesting that they find better use for their cash.
Plus, so many of them have become so greedy in their materialistic pursuits and their efforts to add to their millions. And they also get so much free stuff from vendors who want to use the stars' popularity to sell products.
For instance, as if the millions that rapper 50 Cent has made off his albums and his movie aren't enough, he now has his own grape-flavored vitamin water called Formula 50. Celebrities love using their image to enhance their wealth, which is why so many of them produce their own clothing lines, sneakers, and fragrances.
These celebrities realize that many impressionable people want a little taste of "the glamorous life," so they will try to look and smell like the stars. Therefore, stars sell products with their names and pictures on them for outrageous prices to fatten their wallets.
Some of these ventures are so outlandish though, like Snoop Dogg producing his own type of candy and rapper Lil Jon creating his own energy drink named Crunk Juice. Some of them will use anything to make money so they can just waste it.
I'm not ignoring the fact that many celebrities donate large sums of cash to humanitarian efforts to help those in need. Many of them donated millions to supply aid to those affected by the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Some of them even gave of their personal resources and time.
And I'm not suggesting that celebrities owe a debt to society for being so wealthy. I'm not advocating a socialistic society where everyone has the same amount of funds, because there would be no incentive to work hard to be able to waste money on ridiculous endeavors.
Celebrities work hard and are entitled to compensation just like the rest of society. They are blessed to be able to live a lifestyle that most people can only hope for, but that doesn't necessarily call for flashy displays of one's wealth. I'm just simply stating that being rich is no excuse for being wasteful.

Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
anonymous892
anonymous892
posted 3/03/06 @ 2:40 AM EST
Such is the nature of materialistic culture. Society looks at the outside to see how expensive we are on the outside, but God looks at the heart.
Knox B. (Continued…)
jasonglades
APA style papers
posted 2/10/09 @ 7:17 AM EST
I don't agree to the following statement that celebrities work hard.
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