By Kai McMillian
As many of us know, the Met Gala took place on Monday, May 6, 2024 at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Met Gala used to be called the “Costume Institute Benefit”, and is a fundraiser event that takes place on the first Monday of May every year. The fundraiser is funding the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in Manhattan. This year alone raised more than $26 Million, which we will talk more about later. In this invite only event, the event is under the leadership of Anna Wintour. Many A-list celebrities attend this event such as Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey, Kim Jennie (of the K-Pop group Blackpink), Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, and more. The event consists of a carpet walk where many photographers take photos of these celebrities, a royal dinner, after parties and a special performance by one or some of the musical artists. The event is known for its glorious fashion, luxurious themes, dinners, parties, and is also known for its exclusivity as there is a rule that the people who are invited cannot publish photos, videos, or talk about what goes on past the carpet walk unless it is approved. Due to all of this, this event is extremely expensive and it has raised many eyebrows.
To start it off, a ticket to the Met Gala is worth about $75,000 dollars, which is the salary for about 12% to 16% of the American population. That doesn’t sound like a lot but if we do the math, 12%-16% of America is about 39,000,000 to 53,328,000 Americans make up to or less than $75,000. Many people have criticized the price of these tickets because they were surprised to see that the amount of wealth these celebrities have is so astronomical because it’s easy for them to pay this absurd amount for a one day event that’s mostly just for photos, fashion, and food, while a good chunk of America is struggling to even make up to $75,000. Not only is it this much for a ticket, many of these celebrities get in for free as the brand is paying for these celebs to go to the Met wearing their designs, so basically these celebrities are getting paid to go instead of paying to go. On the other hand, to just buy a table at the Met, it can cost up to an astonishing $300,000. Only 2% of the US population makes up to $300,000. The wealth inequality in the USA is constantly growing at an exponential rate as the 1% of America has 40% of all the wealth in America and a quarter of the national income, while 80% of the USA only takes up 7% of the nation’s wealth. For the average worker, they would have to work a full month to make up what the top 1% makes in just an hour. Also on the topic of a ticket costing $75,000, in 2020, a ticket was about $30,000. That amount of money can put a family of four over the poverty line. The salary of an A list celebrity can be from $1 million to $500 million dollars. Some have questioned if celebrities really need that much money while a good chunk of Americans are struggling to keep up.
On the social media platform “TikTok”, many people have expressed this same concern. Thousands of users made videos talking about their shock at the cost and wealth of the attendees. One user even said that “It’s too expensive to live anymore” pertaining to the average American in comparison to these millionaire celebrities that seem to get whatever they want with no issue and no matter the cost. Many others have also said that the American media focuses more on events like this and purposely ignores real life issues such as the ongoing Gaza and Israel war. People are upset to see that the massive sums of money raised by the Met was more than $26 million and that money was used to fund the Costume Institute and not used to fund things that would genuinely help people. That amount of money can improve the lives of so many people if just a fourth of it was donated to different foundations, charities, or organizations that are supporting any cause that deals with human rights such as helping homelessness, discrimination of any type, etc. A fourth of $26 million is $6,500,000, which still leaves roughly $20 million for the costume institute, while just $6 million can help thousands in America if it was donated to different charities.
While the rich continue to make what the average American makes in a month in a day, the wealth gap is doing nothing but becoming greater and greater every year. If celebrities who are making millions a year just gave some of that money to good causes and helped support many Americans or organizations that help those across the world, it would make a big difference.
beniciapaw.com 