User:B137/Forgotten man

Forgotten man is a term generally used to describe those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. However, this was not necessarily it's original intention. The term was first notably used by Yale proffessor William Graham Sumner, but was also used by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with a somewhat different viewpoint on who "the forgotten man" is. ^[1]

Yale professor William Graham Sumner had a different meaning of the forgotten man. His alebraic definition of the forgotten man was "c", who is coerced into helping the man at the economic bottom "x", by "a" and "b" who demand charity for "x". Hence Sumner's forgotten man is not necessarily poor, but rather someone who is not recognized for his good; his interests are entirely overlooked.

Roosevelt used the term in a fireside chat (radio address) he gave on April 7, 1932. Roosevelt used the term to describe the poor men who needed money and were not getting it, promoting his New Deal. Roosevelt supporters said of Sumners forgotten man, "You have the wrong forgotten man! The forgotten man is the man waiting for the recovery that you are not delivering or that you are preventing." ^[2]

One use of the term today is to describe millions of people who voted for Obama, thinking that he would distance himself from the more liberal in his party and govern more from the center. ^[3]

The Forgotten Man is also the name of several works.

• The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, a 2007 book by Amity Shlaes
• The Forgotten Man, a 2005 Elvis Cole novel by Robert Crais
• The Forgotten Man, a 1971 TV film
• The Forgotten Man, a 1941 Robert Benchley short
• The Forgotten Man, a 1932 radio address given by Franklin Roosevelt. ^[4]
• The Forgotten Man, and Other Essays, a collection of essays by William Graham Sumner