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The article reports on the public's desire for economic security and a trend toward the welfare state and labor unions, which support state-guaranteed plans for security in the United States. Industrialization improved workers' quality of life, but automation diminished their sense of achievement in the work place. Business is concerned that a welfare state will lead to economic stagnation and reduced industrial productivity. A solution is government programs encouraging individual responsibility for self-sufficiency--not dependence on the state. Topics include the distinction between welfare society and welfare state, profit and loss economy, appropriate mix of "freedom from" and "freedom to" in a social movement, and management incentives to promote private initiative.

The article is based on three speeches delivered in April and May 1949 by Donald K. David, dean at Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. The events occurred at the Economic Club of Detroit, a joint meeting of a Chamber of Commerce, Harvard Club, and Harvard Business School Club, and at Washington & Lee University. Topics are the responsibility of business, the uncertainty of war, executive ability and leadership, the possibility of atomic warfare, and ideological conflict that is challenging democracy and capitalism.