William Graham Sumner: What Social Classes Owe to Each Other(1884)

In Sumner's passage about What Social Classes Owe to Each Other, a particular things that he says regarding to the roles of the rich and the poor stood out to me the most. He says "Those who are bound to solve the problems are the rich, comfortable, prosperous, virtuous, respectable, educated, and healthy; those whose right it is to set the problems are those who have been less fortunate or less successful in the struggle for existence"(302). I believe that Sumner is saying that the right or duty of the rich people or those who are in a high social status is to fix the problems made by the poor and low class people, because they are the reason for problems that come up in the first place. He believe the rich should do this because the poor people are "unfit" to solve their own problems according to the thoery of Social Darwinism, in other words "survival of the fittest".