William Sumner, The Forgotten Man 1883

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William Sumner, The Forgotten Man (1883)
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Main problem

• What is the true meaning of civil liberty?
• Should the poor and the destitute receive help?
• Should some categories of workers be protected?

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Solution

• New definition of liberty 10 Civil Liberty is
  the status of the man who is guaranteed by law
  and civil institutions the exclusive employment
  of all their powers for their own welfare.
• The paupers and the physically disabled should
  receive benefits, and women and children should
  receive some protection because of their inferior
  status

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Purpose of liberty

• Return to an older understanding 9 that each
  man and woman might live out his or her life
  according to his or her own notions of happiness
  and up to the measure of his or her own virtue
  and wisdom.
• 13 development of independence, self-reliance
  individual energy, and enterprise
• Such social virtues come at the expense of old
  sentimental ties replaced by contract, mutual
  advantage (market)

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Reasons

• Popular sovereignty is a fallacy
• Too much attention is given to disasters, the
  victims of extraordinary circumstances
• Too much social theorizing leads to unrealistic
  plans for reform society will always remain
  ridden by vice and struggle for power
• The poor and the weak (and criminals) are
  victims of their own incompetence and vice 14
• Productive people must pay 15 the Forgotten
  Man (simple, honest laborer)

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Examples

• Improving the condition of the working classes
  accepting assistance leads to inferiority help
  to some workers comes at the expense of others
  (trade unions)
• Taxes helping bad people is counterproductive
• State regulation able-bodied adult men dont
  need protection
• Jobbery redistribution of income (including
  protective tariffs)

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Assumptions

• Human nature egotistical vice is an inescapable
  part of it
• Struggle for power (Social Darwinism)

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Implications

• No regulation and redistribution productive
  people should keep their earnings
• Such policies favor the capitalist class and
  all productive people

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Problems?

• Can society be based on pure self-interest and
  mutual advantage?
• Public goods? Public infrastructure and services?
• Progressive taxation?
• Need for collective social insurance (welfare
  state)?
• Structural advantages of the capitalists?
• The Incredibles?
• Libertarians true heirs of classical liberalism
  (Mill)?