£6 million for 12 years

I read in astonishment today that a 12 year old New Yorker had a £6million lavish soiree for her bat mitvah. Entertainment included 50 Cent(pictured), Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Tom Petty and The Eagles, and the venue was the plush Rainbow Room. The legendary club situated on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center is one of the very best venues for a night out in Manhattan and I remember last time I was in New York how jealous I was of my friends who were going out for the night to the Rainbow Room.

The girl in question is the daughter of David H Brooks, the multi-millionaire founder of DHB, a company that makes body armour for the military. He flew his private jet down to Pittsburgh to pick up Tyler and Perry, paying each of them more than £1 million to perform for his daughter Elizabeth.

The tradition of a Bat Mitzvah, which celebrates a young girl's transformation into womanhood, is a big day in any Jewish family, and many would consider spending tens of thousands on a celebration, but the £290,000 Mr Brooks paid for 50 Cent to perform just 5 songs would eclipse what most families would spend on the entire celebration! And on top of that every guest was given a Goody Bag worth a paltry £600, containing such trivial little gifts as iPods and digital cameras. And here was me getting excited at having purchased a video iPod today!

I don't begrudge him or his daughter the joy that the day brought them, however, and the point of me mentioning this isn't jealousy. I think the wealthy have every right to enjoy their wealth, and it's so great to see them lavish it on their children, who tend to lose out on many of the things most of us take for granted.

See whilst many would call her a lucky girl, I'd say she probably missed out on much of the day-to-day affection and attention you and I received, because often wealthy and successful people pay the price in terms of the amount of time they have to spend working. I'm sure she'd consider herself hard done by, she may even have issues with her father and feel somewhat abandoned. Who knows?

This is why I often get annoyed at people who launch offensives on the wealthy for spending their wealth; things often look very different from the outside. We don't know the details on their lives, and even if they are very happy, and none of these traumas are present, why not just live and let live? Why not concentrate on our own happiness, why is it we can only be happy through someone else's misery?

The reason I brought it up is I'm just imagining being her friend! Despite what I've just said, I might be willing to put up with all the trappings of wealth to meet Steve Tyler! Put it this way, if I was invited to that birthday bash I wouldn't have said no!

For an alternative view.