Organized by the philanthropist and earth's second richest citizen, Warren Buffett, the meeting calls together businessmen like Microsoft founder Bill Gates (the earth's first richest citizen) and media mogul Ted Turner, along with entertainers such as comedian Bill Cosby and musician Yoko Ono. Carefully, they devise a plan to unionize Wal-Mart employees, rebuild hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, clean up the environment and galvanize Congress and corporations behind the goal of being accountable to the people. With a combined wealth that hovers around the dozen-digit mark, they have the capital to do so.
This scenario sounds unrealistic, and well, it never actually happened. Rather, it is the fantasy of tireless consumer/all-people-in-general advocate and perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader, as he has outlined in his new book "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!"
In his first work of fiction, his idea was to create a premise for "a practical utopia," an invented vision that he hopes could become the new reality-a world in which the super-rich use their money as a catalyst for a more just and stable planet.
Last Thursday, Mr. Nader appeared before about 100 people at the Gunn Memorial Library for a book-signing and discussion.
"If I had made it nonfiction, nobody would've believed it," Mr. Nader told the rapt audience, referring to some of the egregious civil atrocities that this consortium could rectify.
Over the course of about an hour and a half, Mr. Nader lectured and answered questions on various matters of social justice, and how to best achieve them. Yes, America's upper echelon could help enact and fund a change in the system. But as he spoke, the tone of the speech took on a certain call to action for those present.
After World War II, a number of European countries banded together to rebuild the battle fatigued continent. Upon doing so, countries were redesigned to include a wealth of social services, such as universal health care, paid sick and maternity leave and tuition-free education.
As Mr. Nader sees it, Americans have the power to enact such a change, and they should exercise that might. Particularly in a country where 45,000 Americans die every year because they don't have access to quality health care, and an inequitable tax structure has the wealthiest citizens enjoying a lower tax rate than the middle-class.
Unfortunately, not enough people organize to push reform. For example, the Winsted-native believes that if a massive credit card membership group banded together, it could stop the credit card companies from charging exorbitant interest rates that often push well past the 30 percent mark. Unfortunately, such a movement has not occurred, and too many people remain deeply indebted to Visa, MasterCard and American Express.
"American people have the lowest expectations of what their country can become," said Mr. Nader, who added that there is, however, no fallen expectation of how much money a person can earn. "Eugene Debs [a 1940s labor leader] was once asked 'What's your greatest regret?' He said 'under our Constitution, Americans have anything they want, but they don't seem to want much of anything.'"
As it is, Mr. Buffett has complained to Congress about the unfair tax structure in a country where his secretary pays a higher percentage than he does. And he has already pledged 85 percent of his fortune to the charitable Gates Foundation. This isn't a chapter of the book, this is real life.
"If we do not convince the super-rich to provide a catalyst and shoehorn ... to provide solutions, we'll continue with what I call a real dystopia on the ground today," said the man who solely challenged and convinced reluctant American car companies to implement safety standards on their automobiles.