As in the older volume, the book argues that institutions—public, private, and social—left over from an era of mass production are unsuited to a new civilization being built throughout the world.

Toffler looks at the many ways the "Third Wave" is revolutionizing our relationships to three "deep fundamentals" and, therefore, to wealth systems in general.

The authors go as far as toying with the idea of a world without money, raising (probably for the first time) a third kind of economic transaction that is neither one-on-one barter nor monetary exchange.

Both the name of the book and the term "Deep Fundamentals" refer to the shifting of the much deeper layer that lies at the foundation of all monetary economies, both capitalist and socialist.

As they point out, there are other kinds of entities (religious organizations, NGOs, businesses, labor unions) that would have to be included in a world as heterogeneous as ours.