I would like to respond to the governor’s State of the State address (“LePage touts record, urges more reforms at State of the State,” Feb. 4).

There are four countries in the world with greater per capita gross domestic product than the United States. They are all Scandinavian countries with higher tax rates than ours, extensive social welfare programs and the highest level of labor union participation in the world.

I suspect that the decisive factor is income inequality. The levels and benefits of worker productivity are distributed among the population instead of going to the top 1 percent.

The governor’s policies do not address the real problems of our society, but instead place the blame on factors that other thriving and responsible societies adhere to.

Wilbur Clark

Presque Isle