Tax season is officially behind us, but was the government just doing its job, or were the taxes you paid theft? In this episode of Just Questions, we dive into the ethics of taxation to answer this question. Using John Rawls’ veil of ignorance and Robert Nozick’s Wilt Chamberlain argument, we explore a famous philosophical debate on taxation and cover two radically different views on fairness, ownership, and what a just state looks like.

Timestamps:

Rawls — 1:56

Nozick — 10:18

Sources:

The Myth of Ownership

A Theory of Justice

John Rawls

Anarchy, State, and Utopia

Robert Nozick

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