You're just jealous (and you can't read).

The American people recently bailed out AIG to the tune of $85 Billion. Now every news outlet is posting the "how could they spend so much money on their nails" story regarding a recent company outing. Predictable!

The problem is not with the cost of the executive retreat that took place last month ($440,000). The problem is not even with the people who are writing these shallow stories. The problem lies with an education system that can't even teach the 3 "R's". In this case, arithmetic seems to be the issue.

I'm going to try to do some simple math to give the story a bit of perspective.

85,000,000,000 X 0.01 = 85,000,000 (this means that 1% of AIG's bailout is $85 million).

85,000,000 X 0.01 = 850,000 (this means that 1% of 1% of AIG's bailout is $850 thousand).

850, 000 X 0.01 = 8, 500 (this means that 1% of 1% of 1% of AIG's bailout is $8,500.00).

440, 000 / 8,500 = 51.76 ish

So what does this mean? This means that the total cost of the retreat is about half of a percent of 1% of 1% of ..... no..... wait a second.......it means that half a....... Well, I think it's probably a really small number (thanks a lot public edumcation).

Hopefully you get my point. Of course if you attended any of the schools I attended - you probably can't even read this blog (and you are undoubtedly wondering why there are no pictures of naked people on your Internets - concluding it must be broken, you are now randomly smashing numbers on your iPhone with the vain hope of contacting the Internet people).

So, let's not get our knickers in a knot. It's only $440 k. If you really need to be upset about something - how about this:

440,000 - 2,949 = 435,071 (that means the total bill before gratuities is $435,071).

435,071 X 0.01 = 4,350.71 (that means that 1% of the total retreat bill is $4,350.71).

The total gratuities on the bill amounted to $2,949.00. That means that the folks at AIG tipped less than 1%. Some might say they're cheap - I say frugal.

So the real question becomes, how does such a fiscally responsible company end up in such a financially dire position? One thing's for sure, it certainly couldn't have been their fault. Maybe when O.J.'s done finding the real killer (see the 90's for reference) we could hire him for this little AIG mystery.