I responded to a post here of someone who said this:

I don’t think the quote ” Live within your means.” applies to him. He is living way below his means which is amazing. While some a lot of people, on the other hand, is living beyond what they can afford. It is a sad truth. I hope we could all take a lesson or two on Mark Zuckerberg’s modest living. It is an inspiration.

My response:

Hello,

You might not know this but Mr. Jobs has been trying to get rid of that house for years and has been appealing the board of his community to remove it. They felt it was a historic landmark. The plans for Mr. Jobs are detailed at Gizmodo here.
http://gizmodo.com/5649909/the-house-that-steve-jobs-will-build
It is as humble as Mr. Zuckerbergs home. In fact, more so because of his wife and kids.

Also while I am not defending the large homes of the wealthy, there is a practical element of having those homes. They have significant reason to need better security than the average joe, and those homes provide that. The world would be a poor place without people who risk things and take chances. While materialism does have some unhelpful consequences, I would rather see them spend it on this than just hoard it and not provide tax revenues and jobs.

If modest living appeals to you, look at monks/spiritual people who have a literal handful of possessions. Look at the poor of society who have to do without not by choice, but by the circumstances of their lives. Look at the 2 billion people in the world who live on less then $2 a day. Wealth doesn’t make our lives better, it just distracts us from the good things that it sometimes obscures.

I think its reasonable for the stability of Mr. Jobs children (everyones children) that he owns a house.  In addition, famous peoples homes are probably one of the only places they can relax and not worry about invasion of privacy.  It doesn’t seem so unreasonable that they have these places, even if they are more about ego than necessitity.