A little excessive???

[foodfiend]

My husband has a client who recently sold his home which had been in his family for generations. Actually, it’s an estate. Bill’s kids didn’t want it because it’s too big (18 bedrooms, I think) and too expensive to maintain (yes, a $25,000 gas bill every month in winter would be a tad much!), but the new owners who have 2 school-age children are adding on! Okay, at what point do you say “well, I have too much money and there are people starving in the US and around the world so maybe I’ll give a little money, or start a program, to help someone else?”. Cripes. I thought that maybe perhaps they were going to start a home for foster children or whatever but no, one of the problems with the house is there are too many windows in the main house for their media room. I would like to think that, if I suddenly became a millionaire or billionaire, I would be a bit smarter with my money than that.

Sorry. I’m venting. I lost a newspaper article which I had been carrying around about a doctor in the US who has started a nutrition program that will feed people in a certain country in Africa who have AIDS. Apparently he got tired of taking trips there with medications to see his patients dying of hunger as well. I wanted to do an internet-search to find this program so I could make a donation. It makes all the sense in the world—no matter how much medicine a sick person has, he cannot get healthy and manage his disease unless he has adequate nutrition. And then I hear of some blockhead who is building a media room onto his humongous mansion… And, yes, I know that people can do whatever they want to with their money, but it makes me wonder.

Anyway, if anyone knows or has heard of this program, please pass the name and its website address along. Thanks!

[Harborwitch]

We drove through an area last night where they are builing huge mansions! I think they are obscene and you are so very right! There are so many people in the world that are dying from disease and hunger, and so many of them live in conditions that we wouldn't make a critter live in. Sadly alot of those people live in America.

Right now we're living in an area of homes that probably range from 1500 to 2200 sq feet. Ours is 1700. I know our rent doesn't make the house payment for the owner - but he has three rentals and lives with his parents. About every third or fourth house is for sale, up for foreclosure, or for rent. This is a neighbor hood of 3 or 400k homes and almost every house has a new SUV or luxury car or two in the driveway! How on earth do they afford it?????

I had a 4200 sq ft house once - but it was only 3 bedrooms and a half bath upstairs, 2 bedrooms (one became a game/sewing room & the other a darkroom), living room, kitchen, sun room, and a service "porch" with the lavatory (potty only) and the "bath" room with the clawfoot tub and the 4 x 4 shower. The rooms were huge, and the only heat was a woodburner in the living room. Divorce ended that It was a lot of work to keep up I can't imagine some of those mansions - you'd have to have a golf cart and a map to get around them.

[vannin]

I know how you feel foodfiend. When is enough sufficient. I have read many stories of the McMansions being sold, empty, rented, for financial reasons. Also of older people 'downsizing' their homes to smaller, cosier and easier to heat, clean, maintain etc. It is, from what I have read, a reasonably rapid and growing trend. The house we are looking at is larger than 1700, but will have a self contained flat for the lady who runs my business, an office and stockroom, room for my younger son, plus, and please don't laugh, my library. The rooms are fairly small, but enough for us.

1700s.f. is a good sized house imho, in fact quite large. The most important thing, I think, is to have no mortgage, interest rates are unpredictable, and can cause untold misery.

The people who are in this mansion may already contributing to a charity programme, one never knows, but 18 bedrooms could be turned into a hospital for heavens sake. Thank God that place is not mine.

[Mare749]

I think Dale made a very good point. These people, (as excessive as they may seem to be) could be making substantial donations to their own favorite charities.

IMHO, one of the reasons those old mansions went out of fashion is because it was a full-time job for the lady of the house to keep the staff hired and organized, and keep everything running smoothly. Sounds like a big PIA to me! I wouldn't be surprised if the people in the "big house" get real tired of being so tied down to their home and eventually start longing for a simpler life.

Anyway, to answer your question. No, I am not familiar with that particular doctor or charity, but I do have an idea. Do you happen to remember the name of the newspaper you took the clipping from, so that you might check their archives? It sounds like a wonderful cause, I hope you are able to locate them.

Maryann

[vannin]

I think if I became a billionaire (none of this Millionaire nonsense), I would still go for the place we want, have a full time gardener, breed those teeny weeny goats in the 3 stables there, do some work about the place like a new kitchen and swimming pool, set my three kids up, (but not too fancy), have a lot of fun on Trade Me (our E Bay), and then start looking for Really Beneficial projects like scholarship funding and feeding programmes.

Oh well, I guess we can dream.

[Roxanne 21]

OH MY!!!! I (WE) are one of "those" that have a HUGE property--- 2000 Square YARDS!!!! of living space. Not to be arrogant BUT----we worked VERY hard and earned every square inch of our HOME!!!! This was our dream and we retired here---yes---some do say that we are "excessive", however, we are very humble!!! I DO NOT have housekeepers, I do all of my gardening except for the once a month grounds keepers, I even take our trash to the curb every Monday morning----Some of what us that you would call RICH AND EXCESSIVE are really not that snooty---we love our space---each area has its own personality and this is what we live for----even the cooking---such basic needs. We donate to many charities BUT after much research----many of the so called charities out there are scams---or the governments are taking the money and the recipients are not benefiting--- BE VERY CAREFUL!!!!

OKAY---my bandwagon is over but you must realize that NOT all of the wealthy are scrooges---you have dreams---as they do!! Life is too short to be envious of what you do not have!!!!

Suggestion---READ: ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand-----the producers vs. the parasites---see which you would wish to be!!!

I am sorry this came up------not a cooking topic but I had to make my comment-------and, yes, I am from a VERY POOR background-----that's the beauty of America, work hard and your dream will come true!!!!!

[cjs]

...and Roxanne...who is John Galt???

[Roxanne 21]

MY HERO!!!!!! !!!! and then there is Dagny!!!!!!

Nice to know someone who has read this "objectivist" tome----sure wish a movie would come out of this---more exposure to her philosophy would be great---IMHO

[foodfiend]

Oh dear. I didn't mean to sound as though these people, whoever they are, didn't work hard, and don't deserve what they have. I simply don't understand how a person who has 15 bedrooms for a 4-person family needs to add on to the house! I'm not at all envious. I guess that mostly I wonder about the excessiveness of it all-- such as heating all of those rooms during our nasty winters (and,yes, I did mean $25,000 per month for their gas costs-- and this was in the early 1990's--not $2,500 as somebody suggested the number might have been). It's a waste, to me, of both money and natural resources.

[bjcotton]

Of course I have to say something...I don't see all these charities [people, governments, etc] being so concerned with the people in other countries when we have these same problems here in the US. I personally know people who cannot afford their medications and particularly the elderly eating dog food because they can't afford proper food.