My Super Spoiled Sixteen

After coming back from my run today, as is my custom, I flipped on the TV and sat down on the floor to watch some tube while my body returned to equilibrium. Today I happened upon a show on MTV called "My Super Sweet Sixteen" which is essentially this reality TV series where they film the birthday parties that these really, really, really, really rich girls have thrown for themselves. I witnessed:

1. The booking of a $25,000 rapper to perform for the party.
2. The delivering of invitations to guests by a hired performer dressed as a French maid (party theme was French) using the girl's personal driver (by the way, it's a Bentley).
3. The booking of a troupe of circus performers to perform at the party at a cost of $3,000 each.
4. The surverying of the venue (ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel) and the girl's hissy fit when management informed her that the circus performers would not be able to dangle on hooks from the ceiling because it wasn't designed for that purpose.
5. The girl buying - and DECIDING on - dresses for her two best friends to wear for the party (they had to look "better than all the other guests.") Total cost for this shopping trip: $3,890.
6. The hiring of "hott" models who would escort the birthday girl into the ballroom at the venue for her "entrance." Applicants were required to "show me your abs" and were rated on a sexy scale.
7. The guests of honor being brought to the party at the hotel in a huge, silver tour/party bus.
8. The girl picking out her mother's jewelry to wear to the party, including a 9 carat diamond ring. Actual quote, I kid you not: "When I finish putting on all this jewelry I'll be worth well over $1 million . . . *giggle* but I'm worth it!"
9. The presentation of the birthday present from her parents during the party: a brand-new 2007 BMW 330xi. The car cost $49,000. The girl went ballistic and exclaimed breathlessly to the camera, "I love my parents! . . . and I love showing off for everyone!"

Total cost for JUST the party: $200,000
Including the car, the cost of this girl's birthday party was well over a quarter million dollars.

Meanwhile, that same night, statistics tell us that a 16-year-old girl somewhere in the world died of starvation or disease on her birthday.

In the name of all that is holy, how can anyone justify that kind of reckless, excessive self-indulgence?