Capitalism, atheism, and the meaning of life

"Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor. Seizing the results of someone's labor is equivalent to seizing hours from him and directing him to carry on various activities." -- Robert Nozick, Harvard philosopher

What do the three items in the title have to do with each other? The above quote is a hint.

The quote from Nozick sums up a common libertarian and capitalist sentiment, and is itself a somewhat radical, but also concrete, concept. It boils down to this: taxation is functionally equivalent to slavery. Do you disagree? Think about it. What is slavery, but one human forced to turn over his life's efforts and the fruits of his labor to another, against his will and under threat of severe punishment? The slave at best owns only part of his life. When he works for his master, the meaning and purpose of his life are subjugated to that of his master's. Taxation is simply another form of slavery. How much of your taxes--income, property, sales, etc. etc. etc.--would you pay if they were 100% optional? Like today, you still wouldn't get to choose how they were spent, just how much you would give. And indeed, much of your taxes would be squandered on pork and other spending you would not agree with. You are, in short, giving up your life's time and labor involuntarily to others for uses that neither benefit you nor are agreeable to you. You may partially benefit from some of the taxes collected, but black slaves also "benefitted" by receiving food and shelter. That certainly doesn't mean slavery was good for them though, because they lacked the freedom to control their own destiny, to create their own meaning and purpose in life. Similarly, taxation means the meaning and purpose of a part of your life are no longer yours to control--no longer your own.

What does this have to do with atheism? Many theists believe (see article linked to in title) that meaning and purpose in life are determined by, or handed down from, god. That we are all a part of "god's plan." Many of these same theists find it hard to imagine how an atheist can have any meaning in their life. "If you don't believe in god or an afterlife, then what's the purpose of living? Why don't you just kill yourself now, since in another 100 years it won't matter anyway?" I have actually been asked that, though I'm paraphrasing. My response, is that meaning and purpose in life are something we each need to create for ourselves. We have to. To have meaning and purpose handed to us from an external source, be it from god or gov't, means that it is not truly our own. Indeed, our lives cannot have true meaning or purpose unless we create it ourselves.

Religious theists, many of whom claim to be of a capitalist bent, should take a lesson from free-market economics. The law of supply & demand states that a finite good is more valuable than an infinite good. Life is like that too. How valuable would--could--life really be, if we knew for a fact that there was an eternal afterlife afterwards? Eternity, it's been said, is a really, really long time. Any finite lifespan is infinitessimal and worthless by comparison; if you had an infinite amount of money, what value would there be in picking up a dollar off the street? What value would a few decades of flesh-and-blood life have compared to an infinitely-long afterlife? Contrary to theist thinking, life is all the more precious when you know that this life is all you have.

Liberals, on the other hand, tend to be more individualistic and/or irreligous than conservatives, but many liberal economic policies seem to either ignore or flat-out oppose the laws of supply & demand. They also tend to support many programs requiring high levels of taxation. So there's a bit of learning to be done at the opposite end of the political spectrum as well. How much of our lives and destinies are truly our own when taxation takes nearly half our earnings?

This life is the only one we get, though even if you don't believe that, it's still wise to behave as if you did. We can achieve maximum happiness in life only with the maximum liberty to find and pursue that happiness. Intellectual liberty, civil liberty, and economic liberty. In the end, all three of those are the same. Only within the framework of liberty can we create a meaning and purpose for our lives which is truly our own.