Lewis Corey presents the reader with a detailed description of the crisis that is confronting the middle class. This crisis which has as its underlying cause the economic paralysis that confronts the world and the inability of government to help master the means of production and distribution. This situation has created an unnecessary poverty and, through social pressure and dislocation, brought about a new social order. He contends that during this period of crisis and social change the entrenched interests will attempt to hold on to their power by abandoning the principles of capitalism and democracy by carrying out a fascist repression of progressive forces. Corey contends that this crisis is a result of the decline of capitalism and that any remedy must be based on the split between the propertied and propertyless elements of the middle class.