Wilt Chamberlain Revisited

Abstract

In Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Nozick relies on his principle of Justice in Transfer to explain why the state may not tax income from labor or property. Applying Justice in Transfer to his famous Wilt Chamberlain example, he argues that Wilt owns the money he was paid to play basketball because it was voluntarily transferred to him by his fans, who owned it themselves. Nozick’s argument confuses two questions: whether someone owns the market value of his labor or property, and if so, whether he has a right to transfer that value to someone else, as a gift or exchange. Nozick’s argument goes only to the second question. But the state’s right to tax Wilt on his earnings turns on the first, and in particular on whether owners are entitled to the scarcity rents that accrue to their property or talent.