What Social Classes Owe Each Other

"What Social Classes Owe to Each Other" from William Graham Sumner. American academic at the Yale University (1840-1910).

"What Social Classes Owe to Each Other," written by William Graham Sumner, is a classic gem promoting the concept of limited government. Sumner talks about the "Forgotten Man" in context to the socio-political and economic of a state, defining the differences between the "weak," the "poor" and the "burden" and how humanitarians, reformers and philanthropists all seek to support the above. "What Social Classes Owe Each Other" promotes the principles of democracy and voluntary charity. With solid reasoning and logical explanation, Sumner profoundly defeats the Marxist idea of forced redistribution of wealth. Sumner's rhetoric is fertile ground for effective debate, as it rarely uses economic theory or supply/demand curves (which weren't around when he wrote). Every politician should be required to read this book before taking office. Indeed, the philosophy of Sumner, who was a professor at Yale, has surfaced in the rhetoric of many a politician. Sumner's caustic pen and penetrating analysis make "What Social Classes Owe to Each Other" a truly excellent book. No other work so clearly destroys the foundations of socialism in so few pages.

William Graham Sumner (October 30, 1840 - April 12, 1910) was a classical liberal (now a branch of "libertarianism" in American political philosophy) American social scientist. He taught social sciences at Yale, where he held the nation's first professorship in sociology. He was one of the most influential teachers at Yale or any major schools. Sumner was a polymath with numerous books and essays on American history, economic history, political theory, sociology, and anthropology. He supported laissez-faire economics, free markets, and the gold standard. He adopted the term "ethnocentrism" to identify the roots of imperialism, which he strongly opposed. He was a spokesman against imperialism and in favor of the "forgotten man" of the middle class, a term he coined. He had a long-term influence on conservatism in the United States.Sumner wrote an autobiographical sketch for the fourth of the histories of the Class of 1863 Yale College. In 1925, Rev. Harris E. Starr, class of 1910 Yale Department of Theology, published the first full length biography of Sumner. A second full length biography by Bruce Curtis was published in 1981. Other authors have included biographical information about Sumner as shown by citations in this "Biography" section.Sumner was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on October 30, 1840. His father, Thomas Sumner, was born in England and immigrated to the United States in 1836. His mother, Sarah Graham, was also born in England. She was brought to the United States in 1825 by her parents. Sumner's mother died when he was eight.

What Social Classes Owe to Each Other by William Graham Sumner INTRODUCTION We are told every day that great social problems stand before us and demand a solution, and we are assailed by oracles, threats, and warnings in reference to those problems. There is a school of writers who are playing quite a rôle as the heralds of the coming duty and the coming woe. They assume to speak for a large, but vague and undefined, constituency, who set the task, exact a fulfillment, and threaten punishment for default. The task or problem is not specifically defined. Part of the task which devolves on those who are subject to the duty is to define the problem. They are told only that something is the matter: that it behooves them to find out what it is, and how to correct it, and then to work out the cure. All this is more or less truculently set forth. After reading and listening to a great deal of this sort of assertion I find that the question forms itself with more and more distinctness in my mind: Who are those who assume to put hard questions to other people and to demand a solution of them? How did they acquire the right to demand that others should solve their world-problems for them? Who are they who are held to consider and solve all questions, and how did they fall under this duty? We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

...Written more than fifty years ago--in 1883--WHAT SOCIAL CLASSES OWE TO EACH OTHER is even more pertinent today than at the time of its first publication. Then the arguments and "movements" for penalizing the thrifty, energetic, and competent by placing upon them more and more of the burdens of the thriftless, lazy and incompetent, were just beginning to make headway in our country, wherein these "social reforms" now all but dominate political and so-called "social" thinking...

"The Forgotten Man, and Other Essays" discusses the man who obeys all the laws of the land, works very hard to support his family, and complains very little. He already follows the rules and does not need any law to persuade him. It talks about the people, unions, and working men and how they contribute to society.