Donald Trump is seriously challenged by arithmetic! His false claims about reducing prices are mathematically impossible

Published in the Los Angeles Times and Yahoo.com

Echo letter to the editor: In the 1954 book "How to Lie With Statistics" 

by Darrell Huff, the book's author explains how graphs, samples, averages and other data can be used to mislead readers. 

Business columnist Michael Hiltzik's many examples show us how Donald Trump uses numbers as "rhetorical objects" (“Here’s how Trump gets away with using dubious ❓numbers, 🤥” Dec. 19. IOW- More lies❗). The bigger the numbers, the more overwhelmed are the people trying to digest them.

One thing in Hiltzik's piece that drew my attention was Trump's claim that he “slashed prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500 and even 600 percent.” Perhaps I am missing something, but if you slash a price by only 100%, doesn't that bring it down to $0? Forget 400% or more. That's mathematically impossible. 

As a matter of fact, I tried some mathematical trickery while I was volunteering to help fourth graders with math. I told them I deserved to have my pay doubled. They laughed. Even the kids knew it would still be $0.  Haha!

From Jerry Lasnik, in Thousand Oaks,California