What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
William Graham Sumner's 1883 case against reform by the state, and the origin of "the forgotten man".
At a glance
Key ideas
What classes owe each other, It is not wicked to be rich, The forgotten man …
See all 5Connections
William Graham Sumner and Herbert Spencer
See all 2
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Sumner argues in eleven short chapters that in a free state social classes owe each other nothing beyond good will, mutual respect and guarantees of liberty and security.
- He defends the accumulation of capital and says it is not wicked to be rich.
- Reformers' laws decide what one citizen, the forgotten man, shall do for another, and he pays for every extension of paternal government.
- Minding one's own business, he writes, is "a sociological principle of the first importance".
Why it matters
- It earned Sumner a reputation as the Gilded Age's leading social Darwinist, though the historian Robert Bannister notes it invoked neither Spencer nor Darwin.
Key facts
- Author
- William Graham Sumner1
- Published
- 1883, Harper & Brothers, New York2
- Chapters
- Eleven, from "On a New Philosophy: That Poverty Is the Best Policy" to "Wherefore We Should Love One Another"2
- Forgotten Man
- Sumner developed the idea that year in 11 essays in Harper's Weekly and two speeches1
Key ideas
-
What classes owe each other2
"Good-will, mutual respect, and mutual guarantees of liberty and security", and nothing more, in a free state.
-
It is not wicked to be rich2
Economy and accumulating capital are what every sensible father teaches his sons.
-
The forgotten man2
The worker who saves and pays is threatened by "every extension of the paternal theory of government".
-
Against equality schemes2
Any plan to satisfy the yearning for equality can only "rob A to give to B".
-
Mind your own business2
If "the social doctors will mind their own business", people will face only the troubles that belong to nature.
Connections
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
Is something on this page wrong or out of date? Tell us
The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.