An account of how an average "Joe" becomes a murderer. A friendship grows between a wealthy executive and a blue-collar welder due to their common fear and frustration with the "liberals" and "hippies" who are ruining the country.

Presents the theory that the American dream, all but abandoned in the United States, has been adopted successfully in other countries, including Italy, France, Finland, Slovenia, Germany, Portugal, Norway, Tunisia, and Iceland, looking at such areas as worker benefits, public expenditure for the common good, and state-funded higher education.