I received the following comment that didn’t really fit where it was posted, yet I still wanted to respond to it. I’ll just do that here. First I’ll let you read the post.
In the Aug 25 Houston Chronicle, race and ethnic politics expert Victoria DeFrancesco Soto cautions that President Obama’s current proposed tax increases on the US oil and gas industry not only runs counter to efforts to revitalize the economy but would disproportionately affect communities of color: The Latino community has been especially hard hit in this recession with unemployment rates consistently above that of the national average. Even in the midst of the immigration debate, jobs still remain the top concern for Latinos, as shown in a recent AP-Univision poll … Amid the deepest recession we have seen in 70 years, every effort should be made to balance environmental, security and economic concerns. These goals are not mutually exclusive; however, recent legislation seeks to make them so.For example, an amendment added earlier this month to the Senate’s “Small Business Jobs” bill by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., repeals a tax credit currently available to all American manufacturers. If passed, this amendment would have the perverse effect of cutting U.S. jobs, increasing our energy prices, and providing foreign firms a competitive advantage. I invite Baucus to come to Harris County, Texas, and see for himself how his proposal fares with the thousands of people whose livelihood depends on American oil and gas companies … In 2008, more than 67 percent of the Latino population voted for Barack Obama. Spending more than $20 million to target their community alone, his campaign was the most aggressive to date in courting the Latino vote. Candidate Obama and now President Obama promised he would protect the jobs of Latinos. In this high stakes energy debate, he has an opportunity to do just that. Visit the Houston Chronicle to read the full piece.Victoria DeFrancesco Soto’s work political psychology and race and ethnic politics gives her a unique perspective on issues that will play into this November’s elections. Her research projects examine the influence of social group identity on political behavior, in particular with regards to campaigns; black-Latino intergroup relations; comparative race studies; and attitudes toward immigration. A third major component of DeFrancesco Soto’s research is the area of campaign media effects, where she and Jennifer Merolla were the first to publish a study on the role of Latino-angled campaign advertisements on electoral behavior in 2006.To speak with Dr. DeFrancesco Soto, email media@DeFrancescoSoto.com or call +1-202-579-1103.
I won’t call myself an expert, but I do have a few responses to this comment, and the news article it’s promoting. There are many Latino people who work in the oil industry, my father was one of them, but the affect of a petroleum tax is not something that workers in the industry should really be worried about. The multi-billion dollar corporations that are adamantly opposed to any form of tax, are cutting jobs and reducing workforces without the tax. The point of a corporation is to make money, and they make money by paying people as little as possible and getting as much work out of their body’s as possible. The one thing that forces companies like these to support their employees is well-being is a federal tax that supports the entire country’s well-being. If corporations wanted to “revitalize the economy,” they would not be sitting on top of more than $800 billion of cash. 1 Appealing to the economics hardships of Latino people who are hurting more than others for the benefit of those who hurt them in the first place is a disgusting tactic of the oil companies.
Chronicle of Higher Education