Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!"
    Unavailable
    "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!"
    Unavailable
    "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!"
    Ebook675 pages10 hours

    "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!"

    By Ralph Nader and Jim Feast

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateJan 4, 2011
    ISBN9781609803629
    Unavailable
    "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!"
    Author

    Ralph Nader

    Ralph Nader was recently named by the Atlantic as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history, one of only four living people to be so honored. The son of immigrants from Lebanon, he has launched two major presidential campaigns and founded or organized more than one hundred civic organizations. His groups have made an impact on tax reform, atomic power regulation, the tobacco industry, clean air and water, food safety, access to health care, civil rights, congressional ethics, and much more.

    Read more from Ralph Nader

    Related to "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!"

    Related ebooks

    Politics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Post-Apocalypse Now: The Hard Work of Cli-Fi

      Feb 8, 2019

      What will our future look like? How fast and for how long will things change? Are we mentally and physically prepared to deal with the impacts of these changes on our communities and socioeconomic structures? The post Post-Apocalypse Now: The Hard Wo

      10 min read

    • Article

      This Is Rebellion

      May 3, 2020

      This Is Rebellion
      17 min read

    • Article

      1. The Brightside

      Jul 2, 2016

      1. The Brightside
      8 min read

    • Article

      Learning From The Past

      Dec 23, 2020

      Learning From The Past
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Midnight Message

      Oct 20, 2020

      The Midnight Message
      2 min read

    • Article

      Letter from Seattle: A Season of Peaceful Protest

      Sep 17, 2020

      I write these lines from Seattle, sitting at my kitchen table where on a normal day I can see Puget Sound and the Vashon Island ferry like an elegant paper boat sailing back and forth on its daily runs. But today is not a normal day. Today is day fou

      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Reviews

      Jul 27, 2022

      This empowering self-help guide provides advice and strategies for trans and/or nonbinary people on a range of common mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, body image, trauma, suicidal thoughts and dissociation. It provides advice on n

      3 min read

    • Article

      20 Reasons Why We Love Sa

      Jul 3, 2020

      The humble veldskoen has its roots right here and the footwear has gone global, with a little help from two international investors: actor Ashton Kutcher, who’s been spotted wearing them out and about, and Mark Cuban, an entrepreneur and the owner of

      5 min read

    • Article

      Building And Planting

      May 23, 2021

      Alan Bollard’s accounting of this country’s infrastructure problems does not invite much argument (“Digging deep”, May 22). The solutions are all built on vastly increasing New Zealand’s population to generate enough economic activity to pay for it a

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Merit Trap

      Sep 1, 2018

      The Merit Trap
      21 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Nov 26, 2020

      Letters
      4 min read

    Reviews for "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!"

    3/5

    8 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Through a work of fiction, Nader proposes a plan through which seventeen of the wealthiest people in the world, including Bill Cosby, Phil Donahue, Bill Gates, Yoko Ono, Ross Perot, and Ted Turner, could help alleviate many of the major problems facing the planet today, including government corruption, environmental ills, and social injustices. I recommend this book (especially to Bill Cosby, Phil Donahue, Bill Gates, Yoko Ono, Ross Perot, and Ted Turner)
    • 2/5
      I am a small business owner from the rural South. As you might imagine, Ralph Nader and I don’t see eye to eye on anything. As a result, I expected to be irritated and discomfited by just about anything he put onto paper. Nevertheless, the concept of this novel was intriguing and I was willing to give it a shot. I hoped for a well reasoned (even if mistaken), entertaining read. I was disappointed but not surprised.Seventeen elderly, wealthy progressives get together to save the world. They are billed as “billionaires”, but I’d guess that less than half satisfy that definition. Led by Warren Buffett, the Oracle from Omaha, the group includes such luminaries as George Soros, Barry Diller, Ross Perot and Ted Turner. It includes 6-8 fellows I’ve never heard of (campaign supporters of Nader with money, I assume). It also includes Phil Donohue, Paul Neuman, Bill Cosby and Yoko Ono. I’m pretty sure they’re not billionaires, but you have to have some star power, and it wouldn’t look good not to have any minorities or women, would it?Putting aside the political positions advanced by the Billionaire Boys Club, even more irritating was the complete lack of economic reality advanced by Nader through his “actors”. One key strategy of the Meliorists (their chosen moniker) was to unlock all of the ‘dead’ money contained in mutual funds and bond markets. “Dead money”; also known as the capital used by publicly traded companies to finance the jobs that the Meliorists want to improve through doubling the minimum wage.The biggest evil in the world, in the eyes of Meliorists, is the multi-national corporation. Yet in a typical lack of consistency, perhaps their single biggest “hot button” issue is the estate tax, one of the biggest contributors to the rise and consolidation of assets in the big, faceless corporations that they despise.A minimum wage of $10/hour? Great. I wonder how folks on a fixed income are going to handle the erosion in their purchasing power when inflation spikes? Like the entire novel, the proposals are simplistic, naïve and poorly reasoned.In Nader’s world, Warren Beatty becomes Governor of California and solves the budget crisis by eliminating tax breaks for the super rich. Well, that should cover about 5% of the shortfall. There are simply not enough super rich people in the United States to bridge the budget deficit, regardless of the tax rate. Confiscating all of the assets (not just the income) of the super rich might make a one time dent in the annual budget deficit, but then where would you be?Of course, addressing the budget deficit is not a priority, as in addition to reinstituting confiscatory tax rates, they have a whole basketful of new entitlement plans in the works, including a “reverse income tax”, which I can only assume guarantees you a certain level of income (the earned income tax credit, without the requirement that it be “earned”), guaranteed housing, free legal representation and health care. They completely eliminate federal income tax on those earning less than $100,000 a year. I knew Nader’s philosophy, but I thought that he’d have to at least cloak it in a semblance of reality. Not much reality here. The Meliorists form a political party, draft candidates and qualify for ballots in a couple of months. Really?Now, it would be unfair to assign a low rating based solely upon my disagreement with his politics. The sad fact is that Nader is not a very good writer of fiction. The bulk of the novel involves the Meliorists sitting around a large conference room, at a beautiful resort in Maui, in monthly meetings where they preach to each other, mouthing tired old hackneyed liberal platitudes on which they all agree unanimously. It’s almost heartwarming. This coupled with the absurd, unrealistic events which transpire, make it a difficult read.That is not to say that there are not periods of entertainment or even thoughtful discourse (the process of unionizing WalMart, for example), but they are hopelessly few and far between. Thus, I am faced with assigning a rating. It is amusing to see people actually assign four and five star rating to this work. Can anyone actually make the argument that this is the equal of Lonesome Dove, or War and Peace? I recently read Ken Follett’s epic novel, Fall of Giants and awarded it three stars. It was a far better novel than this piece of work; far better. In truth, this is a one or two star work. Naderites will like it because it parrots their agenda, but that doesn’t make it a good novel.I would be remiss, however, if I didn’t recognize the single biggest benefit that Ralph Nader ever bestowed upon his fellow Americans. No, I’m not talking about the Pinto, I’m referring to his third party Presidential candidacy in 2000, in which he was able to siphon enough votes in the state of Florida away from that pompous, hypocritical, bag of wind Al Gore to prevent him from becoming President. And for that, I will always be grateful. Therefore, I will give him a two star rating for this work, one star more than it deserves.