William Graham Sumner Quotes
Undoubtedly there are, in connection with each of these things, cases of fraud, swindling, and other financial crimes; that is to say, the greed and selfishness of men are perpetual.
Sumner, William Graham. What Social Classes Owe to Each Other. Harper & Brothers, 1883, p. 53.
In many countries throughout the world, corruption is rampant and any contractor to the government has to pay and often offers to pay the appropriate government officials. In the most corrupt countries like Nigeria, corruption is rife in all levels of government but is technically illegal. While in Saudi Arabia, the government has institutionalized the bribery and corruption but limited the amount to 6 percent. Corruption of this type is not only existent on government contracts but often operates for private money where government approval must be obtained. World Bank contracts for example are notorious for the percentage that must be paid to government officials despite the fact that the World Bank officially claims to be against corruption.
4 weeks later Lance resigned as Budget Director over ethical lapses.
At the fall of the Soviet Union, the sell off of much of the state assets to private enterprise fell into the control of a few, so called oligarchs. Many of these looted the enterprises that they controlled. None the less, they were considered leading citizens and many were politicians.
Franklin was the superstar of his day in terms of popularity—especially in Europe. However, his informal, social style together with his late hours and popularity with the ladies, together with the fact that he seemed on good social terms with even enemies developed a combination of jealousy, frustration and even suspicion by some of his diplomatic colleagues.
When his wife Benizir Bhutto was prime minister, there was a perception of many Pakistanis that he was getting 10% graft on all government construction, development and purchases. After his wife was assassinated, he was elected Prime Minister, and the notorious nickname stuck even then.
William Graham Sumner was a classical liberal American social scientist. He taught social sciences at Yale, where he held the nation's first professorship in sociology. He was one of the most influential teachers at Yale or any other major school. Sumner wrote widely within the social sciences, with numerous books and essays on American history, economic history, political theory, sociology, and anthropology. He supported laissez-faire economics, free markets, and the gold standard. He adopted the term "ethnocentrism" to identify the roots of imperialism, which he strongly opposed, and as a spokesman against it he was in favor of the "forgotten man" of the middle class, a term he coined. He had a long-term influence on conservatism in the United States.
