The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice [Hardcover]

Liam Murphy (Author), Thomas Nagel (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195150163 | ISBN-13: 978-0195150162 | Publication Date: April 11, 2002

In a capitalist economy, taxes are the most important instrument by which the political system puts into practice a conception of economic and distributive justice. Taxes arouse strong passions, fueled not only by conflicts of economic self-interest, but by conflicting ideas of fairness. Taking as a guiding principle the conventional nature of private property, Murphy and Nagel show how taxes can only be evaluated as part of the overall system of property rights that they help to create. Justice or injustice in taxation, they argue, can only mean justice or injustice in the system of property rights and entitlements that result from a particular regime. Taking up ethical issues about individual liberty, interpersonal obligation, and both collective and personal responsibility, Murphy and Nagel force us to reconsider how our tax policy shapes our system of property rights.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The thoughts in this book deserve examination, especially the views of Nagel and Murphy on the self-interest each taxpayer reasonably has in the social justice purchased by hard-earned money....[They] offer ideas that would improve the national debate."--David Cay Johnston,New York Times Book Review

Their research is impressive, their reasoning precise.... should be on every public economics reading list."--Journal of Economic Issues

About the Author

Liam Murphy teaches law and philosophy at New York University. He is the author of Moral Demands in Nonideal Theory. Thomas Nagel teaches law and philosophy at New York University. He is the author of Moral Questions, Equality and Partiality, and The Last Word.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195150163
• ISBN-13: 978-0195150162
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #733,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I disagree with the argument, but the book is fairly solid, March 15, 2006

By 

S. McCarthy - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice (Paperback)

Nagel and Murphy have missed an important point in not recognizing that although property rights are conventional, Nozick gives a very convinving ontology of property rights that is compatible with the Lockean tradition. In other words, though property rights as they exist are conventional, they arise from the state of nature in a manner such that government enforcement is not an inherent quality of them. Hence, in arguing that individuals do not wholly own the fruits of their labor due to the fact that the possession of such fruits is enabled by government enforcement of property rights, Nagel and Murphy are clearly missing why Nozick comes to hold the entitlement view of property.

With all of this said, this is a pretty good book overall. It is one thing to disagree with the authors and their argument, it's another to outrightly discredit each of them as individuals. Previous reviewers that oversimplify what Murphy and Nagel are doing here seemingly either do not understand the complexities of these issues, or do not have the intellectual honesty and/or curiosity to consider something that is prima facie opposed to their opinion. To question the academic credibility of the authors is simply ignorant, as both are highly reputable and regarded, and to assert that the authors "seem unaware of the Lockean tradition" is dubious, since Locke is clearly mentioned and farily represented in the book.

34 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is Vertical Equity Really Dead?, August 16, 2002

By 

Russell W. Kessler (Lancaster, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice (Hardcover)

The main thrust of Murphy & Nagel's claim is that pre-tax income cannot be a moral base for the measurement of the fairness of taxation. Their claim is that the ultimate social justice of the entire economic system is the only proper end, of which taxation is a part, thus taxation and the equity thereof cannot be measured in a vaccum, rather only against the resulting end.

It would seem however that Murphy & Nagel make their claim too strong in that they claim that pre-tax income (and vertical equity) cannot be utilized as even a factor in the measurement. Unfortunately for their theory, pre-tax income is a fact of the market economy and the positive law surrounding such economy. Thus, if we are to ignore everyone's pre-tax income, the only possible result is that all after-tax income must come out equal. To claim any other result must come through the application of a judgment as to vertical equity.

It would seem that their claim would be far more sound if it were limited to saying that vertical equity may only be utilized as a means to achievement of the end of social justice. Murphy & Nagel, however, want to make their claim stronger so as to be able to discount the tax equity argument entirely. Ultimately such an argument must fail due to the reality of pre-tax income, but it is still a very interesting and well written book.

2 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Weak Arguments, June 6, 2010

By 

John Scott "Human Bean" (Tokyo Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice (Hardcover)

Nagel thinks that private property and incomes proceed from a system of justice necessarily supported by taxes, and as such justice is prior to private property. That argument would make sense if a coherent system of justice could be devised to match it. As it stands, Nagel only has moral theories, and everybody has one of those.

Nagel tells us we cannot appeal to private property in order to justify the current distribution within society, because it is private property itself is that which needs distributing. Basically Nagel is opting for a collectivist (moralist) starting point in which every person must justify their holdings to Nagel's morality. The obvious alternative, Lockean rights theory, is dismissed on the grounds that "there are no property rights antecedent to the tax structure."

Of course Nagel can define property rights how he wishes, but there have been plenty of instances of property rights (as most people understand them) in the absence of tax structures.