It's not an exaggeration to say that middle-class Americans are an endangered species and that the American Dream of a secure, comfortable standard of living has become as outdated as an Edsel with an eight-track player.  That the United States of America is in danger of becoming a third world nation.<br> <br>The evidence is all around us:<br> <br>Our industrial base is vanishing, taking with it the kind of jobs that have formed the backbone of our economy for more than a century; our education system is in shambles, making it harder for tomorrow's workforce to acquire the information and training it needs to land good twenty-first century jobs; our infrastructure—our roads, our bridges, our sewage and water, our transportation and electrical systems—is crumbling; our economic system has been reduced to recurring episodes of Corporations Gone Wild; our political system is broken, in thrall to a small financial elite using the power of the checkbook to control both parties.<br> <br>And America's middle class, the driver of so much of our economic success and political stability, is rapidly disappearing, forcing us to confront the fear that we are slipping as a nation – that our children and grandchildren will enjoy fewer opportunities and face a lower standard of living than we did.<br> <br>It's the dark flipside of the American Dream – an American Nightmare of our own making. <br> <br>Arianna Huffington, who, with the must-read <i>Huffington Post</i>, has her finger on the pulse of America, unflinchingly tracks the gradual demise of America as an industrial, political, and economic leader.  In the vein of her fiery bestseller <i>Pigs at the Trough</i>, <i>Third World America</i> points fingers, names names, and details who's killing the American Dream. <br> <br>Finally, calling on the can-do attitude that is part of America's DNA, Huffington shows precisely what we need to do to stop our freefall and keep America from turning into a third world nation. <br> <br><i>Third World America</i> is a must-read for anyone disturbed by our country's steady descent from 20th century superpower to backwater banana republic.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>