Overpaid Celebrities: Make 'em Kings, Just Because We Can

Do celebrities really have to make so much money, and do we have really have to worship them as if they were royalty? No doubt, some stars commanding large sums of money are talented and should be compensated well, but for a television actor to make a million dollars per episode is just plain absurd. This especially bothers me when so many people in the world still lack money to buy food to eat, let alone send their children to school every day. And even closer to home, the numbers of homeless and unemployed continue to rise at a disturbing pace.

I’m sorry, but Lady Gaga was not born to make $90 million a year (that’s $90,000,000), and Charlie Sheen shouldn’t be making up to $25,000 per tweet. Turning a blind eye to this glaring imbalance is indeed a disease, a disability. Don’t get me wrong, the creative business minds behind the making of celebrities should be paid handsomely, but by the same token, they could better serve the world we share by distributing their hard-earned funds more strategically.

If I didn’t see the haggard man begging for money on my way to the mall or hadn’t seen with my own eyes children walking barefoot on the burning hot pavement in Southeast Asia, then yeah, I wouldn’t care so much. Go ahead and make whatever the hell amount of money you want. But please, couldn't you share some of it with your neighbors? Token amounts here and there don't really amount to that much without a consistent effort and a strategy just like anything else.

Here's a solution: How about when celebrities net a certain dollar figure, let's say $5 million, they're shipped off to live in a developing nation for six months. Of course that would never happen. But wouldn't it be great if celebrities of this stature and wealth would do this. Then truly, others would be able to look up to them and their influence would mean something. I'm sorry, taking a trip into the heart of Africa with bodyguards and escorts will never garner respect from anyone with any sense...certainly not from the people there or here.

Article Author: Irene Ford

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