William Graham Sumner
American sociologist (1840 to 1910); author of What Social Classes Owe to Each Other.
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What they believe
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In practice the State usually offers less wisdom and moral sense than the average citizen
Hence "the State," instead of offering resources of wisdom, right reason, and pure moral sense beyond what the average of us possess, generally offers much less of all those things.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1883This on korrents
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Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 20 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
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In practice the State usually offers less wisdom and moral sense than the average citizen
Hence "the State," instead of offering resources of wisdom, right reason, and pure moral sense beyond what the average of us possess, generally offers much less of all those things.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Every effort to realize equality requires a sacrifice of liberty
We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Under the labels "the poor" and "the weak" the imprudent are made a duty of the prudent
Under the names of the poor and the weak, the negligent, shiftless, inefficient, silly, and imprudent are fastened upon the industrious and prudent as a responsibility and a duty.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
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In a free state no one can claim help from another or be made to give it
It follows, however, that one man, in a free state, cannot claim help from, and cannot be charged to give help to, another.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
It is not the State's function to make people happy
It is not at all the function of the State to make men happy. They must make themselves happy in their own way, and at their own risk.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Democratic government is in more danger than any other of becoming paternal
The trouble is that a democratic government is in greater danger than any other of becoming paternal, for it is sure of itself, and ready to undertake anything, and its power is excessive and pitiless against dissentients.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
A fortune made by legitimate industry does not exploit the employees who helped make it
In no sense whatever does a man who accumulates a fortune by legitimate industry exploit his employés, or make his capital "out of" anybody else. The wealth which he wins would not be but for him.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
A guarantee that no one suffers hardship would mean a return to slavery
If any one thinks that there are or ought to be somewhere in society guarantees that no man shall suffer hardship, let him understand that there can be no such guarantees, unless other men give them—that is, unless we go back to slavery, and make one man's effort conduce to another man's welfare.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
It is hard to believe a strike for wages is ever expedient
I cannot believe that a strike for wages ever is expedient.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Liberty cannot be combined with dependence on government care
If we have been all wrong for the last three hundred years in aiming at a fuller realization of individual liberty, as a condition of general and widely-diffused happiness, then we must turn back to paternalism, discipline, and authority; but to have a combination of liberty and dependence is impossible.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Society's first need is to be freed from meddling reformers and let alone
Society needs first of all to be freed from these meddlers—that is, to be let alone.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Philanthropic schemes have A and B decide what C must do for D, ignoring C
The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes, from a sociological point of view, is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C's interests, are entirely overlooked.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Social reform cannot remove a penalty for vice, only shift it onto others
Now, we never can annihilate a penalty. We can only divert it from the head of the man who has incurred it to the heads of others who have not incurred it.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
A drunkard in the gutter is where the natural order of things puts him
A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
A protective tariff is the greatest job of all
The greatest job of all is a protective tariff. It includes the biggest log-rolling and the widest corruption of economic and political ideas.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Every extension of paternal government falls on the Forgotten Man, who must work and pay
It is the Forgotten Man who is threatened by every extension of the paternal theory of government. It is he who must work and pay.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Charity in its broad popular sense is today the most harmful thing after vice
It would be extreme folly to say that nothing of that sort ought to be done, but I fully believe that today the next pernicious thing to vice is charity in its broad and popular sense.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Rights concern equal chances, not results
Rights do not pertain to results, but only to chances. They pertain to the conditions of the struggle for existence, not to any of the results of it; to the pursuit of happiness, not to the possession of happiness.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
The yearning for equality comes from envy, and plans to satisfy it waste capital
The yearning after equality is the offspring of envy and covetousness, and there is no possible plan for satisfying that yearning which can do aught else than rob A to give to B; consequently all such plans nourish some of the meanest vices of human nature, waste capital, and overthrow civilization.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
Social groups owe each other only good will, respect, and mutual guarantees of liberty
In the prosecution of these chances we all owe to each other good-will, mutual respect, and mutual guarantees of liberty and security. Beyond this nothing can be affirmed as a duty of one group to another in a free state.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) Said c. 1883
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