Teacher Salaries and Wall Street Compensations

I can’t wrap my head around who much 23.2 million dollars is.  I think I have a way to put it into perspective.

   It was reported that just days before the Lehman Bros. bankrupcy the company sought $23.2 million dollars in “special payments’ to three outgoing executives.  How much is that I asked myself?

  I thought it might be useful to find a new way to measure money.  I came upon the ATS.  That’s Average Teacher’s Salary.  The American Federation of Teachers teacher salary survey for the 2004-05 school year found that the average teacher salary was $47,602.  Let that be one unit of ATS.  

  I divided $47,602.00 into 23,200,000.00.  The result was 487.4 on the ATS scale.

  This just means that the “Special Payments” that Lehman Bros. was working to get for their failed executives is worth 487 teachers for an entire school year.  

   I wonder how many elementary schools it would take to be filled up by 487 teachers?  I wonder if those Lehman Bros. executives think the job they did on and for America are worth that many ATSs?