MATT DAMON: USA'S PROBLEMS COULD BE SOLVED "IF PEOPLE HAD THICK PASSPORTS"

Matt Damon thinks Americans should be more internationally-focused.
"I think many of our problems as a country would be solved if people had thick passports," the actor, 37, tells Conde Nast Traveler in its September issue.
"There's just no substitute for actually going and seeing things," he says.
Damon, who says only 21 percent of Americans have passports, says that fame has made him want to do good.
"You start to feel a level of responsibility to direct attention to things that actually matter more than to silly things like who you're dating," he explains.
"For a lot of actors, our biggest fear is that we're going to start talking about things we don't fully understand and sound like idiots," he says. "In the long run, I'll do much more good if, when I open my mouth, I have something worth saying."
The father of 2-year-old daughter Isabella and step-father to 10-year-old Alexia is expecting a baby girl this fall with wife Luciana.
See photos of stars' bumps this summer.
Damon described a trip to Tanzania, where he visited a clinic and witnessed children receiving anti-malarial medicine.
"I realized that because of President Bush's malaria initiative, this baby had survived," he told the magazine. "American taxpayer money saved this baby's life."
He has encouraged both presidential candidates to increase aid to Africa.
"When you go to a country and see your fellow Americans feeding people or getting clean water or saving their lives, you are really seeing the best of us. We are exporting the best of who we are — and who we should be," he says.
Damon also reflected on his rise to global stardom.
"I remembered as a kid sitting with Ben Affleck, dreaming of someday going to New York and becoming actors," he recalls. "Dreaming is a great thing."

Usmagazine