On Tuesday, May 13, 2014, renowned journalist and author David Cay Johnston visited the Center for Communication & Civic Engagement (CCCE). In the morning, Johnston spoke to students in CCCE director Professor Lance Bennett’s 350 student undergraduate course “Media, Society, & Political Identity: The American Dream and the Crisis of Consumer Society” (POLS/COM 306). Later on the same day, he addressed a group of about twenty-five undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members from various departments, as well as interested citizens at a CCCE presentation in the Communication building. At both occasions, the author of several books on taxes and economic policy discussed the topic of his most recent book, which is entitled “Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality.” In his talk Johnston explained how government policies subtly take from the many to give to the already rich few, creating a business aristocracy, which the Founders warned would ruin our republic and destroy liberties. He discussed the forces widening the chasm between the super rich and everyone else. Among those forces are, according to Johnston, the decline of unions and the shifting tax burdens. During both talks, Johnston touched upon a variety of topics, such as child poverty, corporate tax breaks, and the journalism profession. For decades, David Cay Johnston has been on the forefront of exposing and documenting these shifts in income and wealth distribution.
