Essay: What Social Classes Owe to Each Other

Overview
William Graham Sumner's 1883 essay mounts a vigorous defense of laissez-faire individualism and a sharp critique of paternalistic reform. Writing amid rapid industrialization and growing public debate about poverty and inequality, Sumner insists that social obligations are born of voluntary relations and common law duties, not of imposed redistribution. He frames modern social conflict as a clash between reformers who seek to engineer outcomes by coercion and ordinary citizens who bear the unseen burdens of those schemes.

Principles and Moral Framework
Sumner grounds his position in a moral vocabulary that privileges negative duties , obligations not to violate others' rights , over positive duties to provide for others. He argues that liberty, property, and the freedom to enter voluntary associations form the core of social justice. Compulsory transfers, special privileges, and protective legislation are portrayed as breaches of justice because they force some citizens to pay for the ends of others, distort incentives, and undermine responsibility.

The "Forgotten Man"
A central rhetorical device is the figure Sumner calls the "forgotten man." Reformers typically describe A and B, those in need and those who wish to help, but they neglect C, the ordinary taxpayer who must finance reforms and bear their unintended consequences. Sumner emphasizes that while reformers celebrate the designer of social policies, they often ignore the interests and burdens of the average person who neither seeks to be helped nor to be used as a funding source. This rhetorical move reframes the morality of social programs by highlighting displaced costs and hidden obligations.

Arguments Against Paternalism and Redistribution
Sumner contends that paternalistic interventions , whether through tariffs, subsidies, charitable regulations, or compulsory welfare , erode moral character and weaken the spontaneous institutions that sustain society. He warns that government-engineered uplift fosters dependency, rewards inefficiency, and favors special-interest groups at the expense of general liberty. Market competition and voluntary charity are presented as superior mechanisms for discovery, improvement, and mutual aid because they preserve individual responsibility and respect the autonomy of all parties.

Policy Implications and Social Theory
On Sumner's view, the legitimate role of government is narrowly functional: protection of life, liberty, and property and enforcement of contracts. Social order emerges from voluntary, often unintended, patterns of interaction rather than from centralized design; therefore, tampering with those patterns invites harmful trade-offs. He casts social classes not as moral categories that demand enforced solidarity but as outcomes of individual actions and associations that should be addressed through freedom, not coercion.

Reception and Legacy
The essay became a touchstone for classical liberal and social Darwinist arguments at the turn of the century, influencing debates over welfare, tariffs, and regulatory policy. Critics accused Sumner of ignoring structural inequalities, diminishing collective responsibility, and naturalizing poverty. Supporters praised his clarity about burdens that coercive reform imposes on ordinary citizens. The "forgotten man" formulation continued to shape political rhetoric across the ideological spectrum, even as subsequent generations contested Sumner's narrow definition of social obligation and the adequacy of voluntary relief alone to address systemic hardship.