Book excerpt: This is a story of the class struggle between money, politics, and heart. In 1973, the wealthiest one percent of Americans owned only 13% of the countrys assets. Those assets included the equity in homes, businesses, stocks, bonds and property. Forty years, three poorly conceived wars and two major financial disasters later, that figure has risen to nearly 50% at the expense of the average American. Where did this windfall of wealth come from and why did the real income and personal assets of the vast majority of working Americans decline during this same period? Were they just smarter ... or did they just outsmart us? Once thought of as the land of opportunity with a standard of living envied around the world, America has become the land of political manipulations and unconscionable acts in favor of a select few. This factbased fiction novel tells the story of a generation of men and women who sought the elusive American Dream during the decline of the middle class and the deliberate war against those in poverty who can only afford to dream. Richard DeBenedictis story is told through the lives and adventures of four main characters, whom, although of diverse backgrounds, ideologies and social status, are influenced by the self-serving acts of those who want it all. Is this trend reversable or is America, as feared by the authors of our Constitution, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, on its way to becoming ruled by and for The Priviliged Few?