Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!

In the cozy den of the large but modest house in Omaha where he had lived since he started on his first billion, Warren Buffett watched the horrors of Hurricane Katrina unfold on television in early 2005....

On the fourth day, he beheld in disbelief the paralysis of local, state, and federal authorities unable to commence basic operations of rescue and sustenance, not just in New Orleans, but in towns and villages all along the Gulf Coast.... He knew exactly what he had to do.

So begins the vivid account by political activist and best-selling author Ralph Nader that answers the question, What if?

What if for once the driving force in America was harnessed in the interests of the citizens of this great nation?

What if some of America's most powerful individuals decided it was time to fix our government and return the power to the people?

What if Walmart were persuaded to unionize?

What if a national political party were formed with the sole purpose of clean elections?

What if we really embraced the alternative forms of energy that will effectively clean up the environment?

What if, one by one, we set out to solve each of the problems that plague us now in the real world?

This extraordinary book, backed by a major promotional budget and written by the author who knows the most about citizen action, returns us to the literature of American social movements — to Upton Sinclair, to John Steinbeck, to Stephen Crane — reminding us in the process that repairing the body politic of America is still possible.

Named by the Atlantic as one of the one hundred most influential figures in American history, and by TIME and Life magazines as one of the one hundred most influential Americans of the twentieth century, Ralph Nader has helped us drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments for more than four decades.

"Since the Progressive era, Ralph Nader has done more than anyone else to protect American consumers. With this utopian fantasy, he shows us how good he thinks things could be." Warren Beatty, actor

"As inspirited a work of the political imagination as Tom Paine's Common Sense." Lewis Lapham

"Mr. Nader has produced a wonderful piece of fiction that I'd love to see become nonfiction." Tom Peters, author of The Secret of Excellence

Consumer advocate and perennial third-party presidential candidate Nader forays into fiction with this novel of how wealthy investor Warren Buffet, dismayed by the federal government's failed response to Hurricane Katrina, founds a conspiracy of 16 other billionaires (also real-life figures) who work together to move the United States in a more progressive direction against the countervailing pressures of the corporations and their allies in the American government. The novel, as one might expect from Mr. Nader, is highly detail oriented about the actual policies that the billionaires seek to achieve as well as about the process by which they usher those policies through the halls of power. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

This vivid fictional account by three-time presidential candidate and best-selling author Ralph Nader asks: What if several of America's wealthiest individuals decided it was time to work for the collective good?

The story that unfolds returns us to the literature of American social movements — to Edward Bellamy, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, and Stephen Crane. And Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! is something else too, a reminder that real changes in America always start with the imagination.

Named by the Atlantic as one of the hundred most influential figures in American history, and by Time and Life magazines as one of the hundred most influential Americans of the twentieth century, Ralph Nader has helped us drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments for more than four decades. Nader's books include In Pursuit of Justice, The Ralph Nader Reader, The Good Fight, and The Seventeen Traditions. He lives and works in Washington, D.C., at the helm of several citizens' action groups that he founded.

"In the cozy den of the large but modest house in Omaha where he has lived since he started on his first billion, Warren Buffett watched the horrors of Hurricane Katrina unfold on television in early September 2005. . . . On the fourth day, he beheld in disbelief the paralysis of local, state, and federal authorities unable to commence basic operations of rescue and sustenance, not just in New Orleans, but in towns and villages all along the Gulf Coast. . . He knew exactly what he had to do. . ."

So begins the vivid fictional account by political activist and bestselling author Ralph Nader that answers the question, "What if?" What if a cadre of superrich individuals tried to become a driving force in America to organize and institutionalize the interests of the citizens of this troubled nation? What if some of America's most powerful individuals decided it was time to fix our government and return the power to the people? What if they focused their power on unionizing Wal-Mart? What if a national political party were formed with the sole purpose of advancing clean elections? What if these seventeen superrich individuals decided to galvanize a movement for alternative forms of energy that will effectively clean up the environment? What if together they took on corporate goliaths and Congress to provide the necessities of life and advance the solutions so long left on the shelf by an avaricious oligarchy? What could happen?

This extraordinary story, written by the author who knows the most about citizen action, returns us to the literature of American social movements—to Edward Bellamy, to Upton Sinclair, to John Steinbeck, to Stephen Crane—reminding us in the process that changing the body politic of America starts with imagination.

Ralph Nader's many best-selling books include, from Seven Stories Press, In Pursuit of Justice, and the Ralph Nader Reader. His most recent best-selling book was The Seventeen Traditions, published by HarperCollins Publishers in January 2007.