Similarities Between Nozick And John Rawls

According to Nozick, “Taxation of earnings from labor is on par with forced labor.” (Anarchy, State, Utopia, 169). Philosophers Robert Nozick and John Rawls take opposing stances on this matter. They illustrate their opinions and reasonings in their theories in order to advocate for their respective arguments. This paper will look to clarify and evaluate Nozick’s argument as well as Rawls’ response to Nozick’s claim that taxation is on par with forced labor. The goal of this paper is, therefore, to discuss both Rawls and Nozick’s theories in order to argue against Nozick’s reasoning and argument.
According to Nozick, “Individuals have rights, and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights)(Nozick, xix).” Nozick conceptualises these rights as “self­ownership.” Self ownership is defined as the ownership of an individual’s physical body, talents and labor (Nozick, 169­71). Nozick creates a Lockean argument by stating that if we

Everyone should possess equal basic rights and liberties 2. “Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both reasonably expected to be to everyone’s advantage and attached to positions and offices open to all (Rawls 53).” He uses a social contract to develop his ethical theory of 'justice as fairness.' Rawls argues that in order to work out the basic principles of a society, each of us should be placed under a veil of ignorance (Rawls 11). The veil of ignorance places individuals at a zero point position where they know nothing about their own social class, current wealth, psychological propensity, talents or conception of the good (Rawls 11). From this ignorance, we are able to produce the basic principles about how our society should be run since everyone would concerned for everyone equally as they do not know who is advantaged and who is not (Rawls