"4 According to FDR, justice and fairness were destroyed by the unprecedented emergence of large-scale profit motivated trusts that crushed competition and crippled the American working class. Therefore, the United States government must step in to not only relieve and recover those citizens and what was lost, but also to reform and reconstruct the old, corrupt structures of American capitalism to fit the modern world-a world of increased equality and inclusion. For his critics and many of the American public, this transformation created much anxiety and fostered fear of lost American individualism and liberties; however, FDR's fifth fireside chat assuaged those fears as he presented the United States government as a tool for evolution rather than a weapon for destruction. .
So what exactly were the fears of the American public, and, how did FDR attempt to address and assuage those anxieties? In the fifth fireside chat FDR posed a few simple, yet telling, questions to the American people; he asked "Are you better off than you were last year? Are your debts less burdensome? Is your bank account more secure? Are your working conditions better? Is your faith in your own individual future more firmly grounded?"5 Furthermore, FDR posed questions dealing with Americans personal liberties such as "Have you as an individual paid too high a price for these gains?.Have you lost any of your rights or liberty or constitutional freedom of action and choice?"6 While Letters in response to FDR's questions illustrate the American people's anxieties of lost liberty and individualism, the majority of responses outline this sense of cautious confidence in the president during the hard times of the Great Depression. It is important to contextualize the struggles that these listeners were experiencing during the fireside chat, understanding their desperation for salvation from a strong leader.