Rant - Hollywood Celebrities Betray 99ers - Tier 5 Unemployment Now

By John A Stefani

I saw this blog post (Rant - Hollywood Celebrities Betray 99ers - Tier 5 Unemployment Now) written by Pastor Dinary and had some thoughts.

In the US, there are tax regulations when giving donations to charities and to receive tax deductions. For example, one could receive a tax deduction if the charity were a 501(c)(3) organization.

I did wonder how the IRS considers the legitimacy of those foreign charities? As I looked into it further, the IRS.gov has some specific rules on Charitable Contribution Deductions. With very few exceptions, contributions to a foreign organization are not deductible. Also according to Don D. Nelson, Attorney at Law, CPA., a U.S. expatriate residing abroad, still must file a US Income Tax Return each year on their worldwide income! If there is some sort of foreign charity tax shelter, I wasn't able to find it.

It's true that it appears like Hollywood celebrities are self promoting and shameless to be giving money to overseas charities when the economy here in America seems so bad. Yet, there are many who have helped out with US issues, as well. After Hurricane Katrina, there were many Hollywood celebrities who helped and contributed to improving the situation of those who were effected there (see: Stars roll up sleeves for hurricane relief - USA Today Posted 9/14/2005).

I thought about the arguments of the writer saying that, "Hollywood celebrities take American money and use it to live in foreign countries." On the surface the writer makes a good point yet, Hollywood celebrities aren't the only ones that use American money and use it to live outside the U.S. According to www.overseasvotefoundation.org, "The data indicates that the number of civilian Americans living abroad hovers around 4 million." Another website (Suite101.com) states, "According to a recent report by the U.S. State Department, nearly 7 million Americans have temporarily or permanently relocated overseas."

It's obvious that the military is a fraction of that number, the number of Hollywood celebrities living overseas is even smaller and the Hollywood celebrities numbers are minuscule. Celebrities living overseas are noticed more because of their celebrity status. When Uncle Bill and Aunt Alice decide to spend their retirement years in Chapala, Mexico no one hears about that in the news. Are they admonished for turning their backs on the unemployed? NO! They are looked on as making an economical retirement decision that made sense for them.

The writer alludes that since Hollywood celebrities are taking US dollars (converting them into foreign money) to buy goods and services from other countries, an argument could be made that they are contributing to the US international trade deficit. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Economic Briefing Room, The US  international trade deficit in goods and services was $38.3 billion in November, 2010. Again the amount of US earned dollars Hollywood celebrities are spending overseas is minuscule. Our consumption of foreign goods (like oil) and foreign services (like outsourced call center personnel) far outweigh the amount of money that the handful of Hollywood celebrities are spending by living overseas.

Compared to what millions of average families spend on gas, cars, clothing, and other items that are manufactured overseas, the negative economic effect of Hollywood celebrities spending money abroad would be like standing on the coast of France and throwing a stone into the ocean and then expecting a tsunami to hit the US East Coast.What I'm saying is, the money Hollywood celebrities are spending abroad is a drop in the bucket compared to the accumulated purchases of imported items from the rest of  us 308,745,538 US residents (2010 Census Data).

I am a "Buy American" guy, and feel that Hollywood celebrities who are US citizens should work towards changes here in the US by becoming more politically involved here. A good example of those would include: Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sonny Bono.

What do you think?