Ralph Nader: Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us

Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us is a novel "fictional vision that could become a new reality" written by Ralph Nader. Weighing in at 736 pages, it's a big much to be taken all at once. However, we cannot afford to neglect this cultural milestone and have embarked on a multi-part review process.

Bitterly Books will be posting chapter-by-chapter synopses, followed by reviews of each chapter. To this end, Bitterly Books has enlisted the aid of Viator, veteran observationalist and comparative religion analysis expert, so each chapter will be receiving two reviews. Today, we start with the prologue. Check back regularly for updates!

THE PROLOGUE

Synopsis:

The prologue begins with noted couch potato Warren Buffett watching television at home when Hurricane Katrina strikes New Orleans. Mr. Buffett is riveted by the newscast because this is the first failure of management that he has ever seen in more than half a century of business investing, and "he hadn't had a clue about the ineptitude or recklessness or rottenness of the people in power"(p.12).

Buffett is shocked into action, and personally oversees an aid convoy that is assembled and on the scene in 26 hours, presumably including the 16-hour drive from Omaha to New Orleans. They quickly--but quietly--tend to the refugees as ministering angels, prompting one of them to cry out, "only the super-rich can save us!"(p.13) And thus the spark of an idea is kindled in Mr. Buffett's brain.