William Graham Sumner

What the Social Classes Owe to Each Other

Biography
1840- Born in Paterson, New Jersey 1866- Studied theology and philosophy at Oxford 1869- He left Yale to be rector of churches in NYC and Morristown, NJ 1872- Became the first professor of political and social science at Yale 1907- Produced a work that gave him worldwide renown, Folkways 1910- Sumner died in Englewood, NJ

Main Points
The State has one obligation and that is to ensure the safety of the people also whether there is anything but a fallacy and a superstition in the notion that the State owes anything to anybody except peace, order, and the guarantee of rights

Main Point #2
It is Gods and Natures intent that everyone will have hardships, and who are we to change this. But God and Nature have ordained the chances and conditions of life on earth once and for all. The case cannot be reopened. We cannot get a revision of the laws of human life. We are absolutely shut up to the need and duty, if we would learn how to live happily, of investigation the laws of Nature, and deducing the rules of right living in the world as it is Certain ills belong to the hardships of human life. They are natural. They are part of the struggle with Nature for existence

Main Point #3
The gains of some imply the loss of others We shall find that all the schemes for producing equality and obliterating the organization of society produce a new differentiation based on the worst possible distinctionthe right to claim and the duty to give one mans effort for another mans satisfaction! We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty.

Main Point #4
Our first duty is to take care of himself and mind your own business Every man and woman in society has one big duty. That is, to take care of his or her own self. ..there is a danger that a man may leave his own business unattended to; and second, there is a danger if an impertinent interference with anothers affairs

Main Point #5
Our society does well under a contract, because contracts are rational. Contract, however, is rational- even
rationalistic. It is also realistic, cold, and matterof-fact. A contract relation is based on a sufficient reason, not on custom or prescription. It is not permanent. It endures only so long as the reason for it endures.

Main Point # 6
The Forgotten Man is the person who suffers quietly, works hard, and takes care of himself. He passes by and is never noticed, because he has behaved himself, fulfilled his contracts, and asked for nothing
He will be found to be worth, industrious, independent, and selfsupporting. He is not technically, poor or weak he minds his own business, and makes no complaints. Consequently the philanthropists never think of him, and trample on him.

Main Point #7
The pursuit of happiness should not be confused with the possession of happiness Rights do not pertain to results, but only to chances. They pertain to the conditions of the struggle for existence.It cannot be said that each one has a right to have some property, because if one man had such a right some other man or men would be under a corresponding obligation to provide him with some property.