I totally agree with you. And I do empathize completely with people who do not understand what is being put in front of them but are still asked to make a value

I totally agree with you. And I do empathize completely with people who do not understand what is being put in front of them but are still asked to make a value judgment. I'm in that position myself sometimes and it's awful. I think it's furthermore definitely a problem that politicians tout one number. But it's unfortunate that folks blame the number in that case. There's nothing wrong with the number - and all numbers are fudged, by definition! So I think we have a massive failure to teach critical thinking in our education system. We can't continue to, on the one hand have a political system predicated on informed citizenry and on the other do everything possible to prevent those citizens from enlightening themselves.