Oct 26, 2013 2 min read

It’s a given that few celebrities aspire to the kind of austere life that, say, Pope Francis espouses. The early movie moguls had lavish estates, and stars like Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were renowned as much for their ostentatious, globe-trotting ways as they were for their accomplishments as thespians.

But that doesn’t make the thousands of dollars rapper Kanye West reportedly spent last week to propose to girlfriend and reality TV star Kim Kardashian any less off-putting.

He used AT&T Park in San Francisco for the purpose of slipping a diamond reported to be worth $3 million on Kardashian’s finger, and hired a 50-person orchestra and a private jet for the occasion. It should be noted that Kardashian’s last marriage, to New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries, lasted a grand total of 72 days; if the marriage to West follows a similar trajectory, the ring would cost about $40,000 per day.

Extravagance of this kind provides a kind of economic stimulus, we presume. But we can’t help but wonder how many soup kitchens the money spent on this crass display could have supported, or how many literacy programs could have received a boost or how many beds could have been added to homeless shelters.