Smart Bombs columnist Gary Crooks proposes (May 3) union growth and increasing capital gains taxes to the same rates as income taxes as a cure for stagnant wage growth. Similar policies have given us 2014 first-quarter gross domestic product growth of 0.2 percent, and 1.36 percent during the Obama years, compared to a historical average of 3.73 percent.

Here’s a different proposal: Reduce the absurd U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations recently enacted on coal, and proposed for ozone; reduce corporate tax rates from the highest in the world to 10 percent or less; allow the repatriation of oversea corporate taxes without additional taxation; increase oil and natural gas exports; replace Obamacare with a plan that lowers rather than raises employment costs and does not incentivize employers to lay off or cut the hours of workers; and lower capital gains taxes, the main source of investment capital for start-up businesses (and jobs) back to 15 percent.

Business needs two things to provide more and better paying jobs: relief from onerous, needless regulations, and a reliable source of investment capital to start new businesses and grow existing ones. More jobs put more people to work, which creates more demand for workers. More demand creates competition, which increases wages.

Hal Dixon

Spokane