It is the 21st century, and life on Planet Earth is not what it used to be, as the warnings of Left and Right have proved all too accurate. Teh rich have grown richer, the poor poorer, and raw materials ever scarcer and more expensive -- perhaps because a world-spanning socialistic bureaucracy has made it impossible for private enterprise to function, perhaps because the greedy capitalists have ridden rough-shod over the rest of us. Whatever the reason, the way to be free and happy is to get off Earth.
Space is where it's all happening, especially in the asteroid belt. But there are those on both sides who say the Solar System is too small to be part slave and part free. The war of independence is about to begin...