Okay, let’s get rid of this stereotype that Americans are stingy. It’s about time that self-righteous hollywood stars and irrelevant has-beens like Jimmy Carter quit saying things like rich states “don’t give a damn” about people in poor countries.

The ABC report notes that the governments of “many other countries, such as Norway, Portugal and Japan, give a larger share of their wealth to needy countries.” Yet, as a percentage of GDP, Americans give more than any other nation on the planet. We could certainly give more, but let’s have some perspective. We don’t need our government to steal from the rich to give to the poor, because we give of our own accord. Jimmy Carter wants to create a larger government, so he focuses on government giving while ignoring private giving.

Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year according to an annual report released Monday by the Giving USA Foundation at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy.

“It tells you something about American culture that is unlike any other country,” said Claire Gaudiani, a professor at NYU’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy and author of The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism. Gaudiani said the willingness of Americans to give cuts across income levels, and their investments go to developing ideas, inventions and people to the benefit of the overall economy.

Gaudiani said Americans give twice as much as the next most charitable country, according to a November 2006 comparison done by the Charities Aid Foundation. In philanthropic giving as a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. ranked first at 1.7%. No. 2 Britain gave 0.73%, while France, with a 0.14% rate, trailed such countries as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany.