Expensive day at the ballpark, Part 2

A little over a month ago, I had a post about the guy who caught Barry Bond's 756th home run ball. At time the ball was estimated to be worth around $500,000. To those of us who don't really care about sports, this seems like a very large number. I mean this is probably not the last homerun that Mr. Bonds will ever hit. Why is it worth so much money? I'm sure it is probably hopeless trying to explain something like this to someone who is not interested in watching sports. Well it turns out that the estimate of the home run ball's value was less than market price.

The ball sold for $752,467.

Let us take a minute to think about how much money that is. Well maybe not how much money but, what else it could have been used for. If you go to Feedthechildren.org you can make a donation that will help feed starving children in Kenya. According to the FTC page, one can feed 10 children for $80 a month. So that means that for $8 a month or $96 a year, you can feed a child in Kenya. Assuming that the price of food is constant and that it does not cost anymore to feed a 15 year old than it does a 2 year old; it would cost $1,728 to feed a child in Kenya from birth until their 18th birthday. I know that these are some large assumptions, but just work with me for a minute. If you had $752,467 how many children could you feed from birth until their 18th birthday in Kenya? The answer is 435 children. One could feed 435 children in Kenya with that amount of money for 18 years, with the assumptions that I have made.

Now I am not saying that we should all go and give our money to the poor. I am also not saying that Marc Ecko ( the winning bidder of the ball) should have done something else with his money. I think that everyone should spend their money as they see fit. I will leave it to the altruists to say Mr. Ecko should be helping poor children in Kenya. I think that this is just a reflection on the American culture as a whole. For better or for worse; I will leave that value judgment up to you.