To the Editor:

I have always had a problem with numbers, I joke that numbers traumatized me at an early age.

One number that baffles me is the unemployment numbers. See if you can figure this out: using a low figure, we have had 300,000 new unemployment claims per week for months. So this would give us 1.2 million newly unemployed people per month-right? For the month of July the economy created 160,000 jobs, the best since February. Everyone was excited. How is that good news?

Now not being good with numbers, I am going to just say that leaves 800,000 people without jobs. This gets even more puzzling to me. After months of unemployment staying steady at 8.2 percent, we get an increase in jobs and unemployment climbs to 8.3 percent. Do you think maybe there is no truth in any of the numbers being told to the American people?

Here is another mystery, according to new data that came out this week from the U.S. Census’s Survey of Income and Program Participation. Nearly 110,000 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011.On the campaign trail the president tells us the economy is getting better. If so, why are more people receiving welfare benefits than any time in history? Meanwhile, our president hangs out with Hollywood stars.

When you head to the voting booth, do you want to vote for someone who talks about the economy or vote for someone who has a plan?

A. Young

Otto