A fictional version of Warren Buffett assembles a "cadre" of "super-rich" billionaires to "fix" the U.S. government and return "power to the people," in a new book by political candidate and activist Ralph Nader.
"Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" has just been published by Seven Stories Press.
Nader doesn't call his book a novel. He describes it as "a fictional vision that could become a new reality." He's also called it a "practical utopia."
In Nader's alternate reality, Warren Buffett is inspired to action by the government's inability to adequately respond to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "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. . ."
To quote the publisher's news release, Buffett "invites sixteen other super-rich individuals around a table to save America... (They) work together to unionize Wal-Mart, rebuild New Orleans with a speed and efficiency FEMA could only dream about, advance clean and transparent elections, effectively clean up the environment, and otherwise galvanize Congress and the corporate behemoths to be accountable to the people."