You know how news reports frequently claim that the average American has serious trouble with basic math? Well, it applies to some very intelligent acquaintances of mine as well. I was forwarded an interesting petition by two people whom I think very highly of. Read the opening paragraphs below and see if you can spot the problem… ;-)

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a “We Deserve It Dividend”.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

PS. Unlike the original $700B bailout plan proposed by President Bush, the $85B bailout of AIG appears to have the approval of most analysts (or so it seems from what I’ve read, anyway.) Part of the reason: we, the taxpayers, get 80% of AIG as condition of the bailout, in addition to a relatively high interest rate on our $85B loan to the company. By most accounts, it sounds like we may very well turn a profit on our “investment” in AIG.