UUJEC

Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media-Election Complex is Destroying America

John Nichols discussed his forthcoming book: Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media - Election Complex is Destroying America (which he co-authored with media critic Robert W. McChesney) at the First Unitarian Society of Denver on April 4, 2013. The event was co-sponsored by the Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (UUJEC's) Media Democracy Task Force and the Media Stewards Project.

Nichols explains how as campaign money get bigger - especially after the Citizens United ruling - and journalism as a core check on balance of the government, declines American citizens are in danger of becoming less informed and more open to manipulation. Dollarocracy according to Nichols shows that this new power does not just endanger electoral politics: it is a challenge to the DNA of American democracy itself.

A video of the event is available here.

Changing the World - What Works and What Doesn't
Delivered by Bill Schultz at the 2011 GA

Can the Middle Class Be Saved? Atlantic Monthly IN OCTOBER 2005, three Citigroup analysts released a report describing the pattern of growth in the U.S. economy. To really understand the future of the economy and the stock market, they wrote, you first needed to recognize that there was "no such animal as the U.S. consumer," and that concepts such as "average" consumer debt and "average" consumer spending were highly misleading.

In fact, they said, America was composed of two distinct groups: the rich and the rest. And for the purposes of investment decisions, the second group didn't matter; tracking its spending habits or worrying over its savings rate was a waste of time. All the action in the American economy was at the top: the richest 1 percent of households earned as much each year as the bottom 60 percent put together; they possessed as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent; and with each passing year, a greater share of the nation's treasure was flowing through their hands and into their pockets. It was this segment of the population, almost exclusively, that held the key to future growth and future returns. The analysts, Ajay Kapur, Niall Macleod, and Narendra Singh, had coined a term for this state of affairs: plutonomy. Read the entire article.

NEWS Unitarian Universalists join protest at ALEC's States & Nation Policy Summit "As a person of faith, I stand up for families. I take the command to love my neighbor seriously, and to welcome the stranger as my neighbor. Laws like SB1070, sponsored by ALEC are spreading across the country, criminalize migrant workers, criminalize families, and criminalize DREAM Act students, and this is immoral."
— Reverend Susan Frederick Gray (more...)

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Appalling Greed: Richest 400 Average $270.5 Million Incomes, Pay Almost Nothing in Taxes (more....)

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Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community
Come to the UUJEC both at the 2013 GA and check out our new Economic Justice curriculum Help support the UUJEC Action of Immediate Witness proposal at GA supporting the proposed 28th "WE THE PEOPLE" amendment to the constitution opposing the Citizens United Supreme Court decision Text of proposed 28th amendment from Move to Amend. List of UU organizations endorsing the Move to Amend amendment UUJEC Now Has Online Membership Joining UUJEC has never been easier -- you can now join online. Either way, UUJEC will put your dollars to work keeping you informed about economic justice news, and projects and programs like our new "Economically Just Congregations" effort. Our UU faith is founded on shared values of promoting democracy and the dignity of every individual -- the bedrock principles of UUJEC. Visit our "Join Us" page online, and see for yourself how easy it is to support the work of UUJEC.