Vacant Homes and Hill-side Palaces

This is not an April Fools story, although it should be.
A buddy of mine showed me around a huge 5,000 foot home where he is working on the hardwood floors. The hill-side house is a brand new $2.5 million home with a panoramic view of the bay area. Gene explained that to build a home on the side of the hill required foundations that go 50 or 60-feet into the ground. He complained about the wastefulness of a house with a reception room that has a 25-foot high ceiling. The four-floor palace even has a personal 6-person elevator. The owner runs a business that sells computer games. The house is essentially a place to show others how much money he has to throw around. In capitalist terms, how much he is worth.
Two things struck me immediately: what a waste of human labor. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of work: for what? So a guy can have cocktail parties and show off his view of where the rest of us live. What a waste of the planet’s precious resources. Some go hungry, while others throw their money away.
The other thing is that there is close to 20 million vacant homes in America, according to the US Census Bureau, so why are people still building homes? Why drive 20 minutes up into the hills when there are homes closer to everyone else. Aside from the existing vacant homes, human society will need, in the not too distant future, to start living closer together not further apart if we are to survive as a species.
When this rich business owner has his home finished it will no doubt be a marvel to all those that he allows access to it. But most likely it will, like capitalism’s hopes for the future, at some point lie empty as a stark reminder of the madness of the past.