Libertarianism and Selfishness

I think it is not easy to be a libertarian anywhere in the world. It is much less easy to be a libertarian in the UK; a country with no real history of limited government, and a population which is more or less indoctrinated by the notion of the welfare state. One common criticism I come across, particularly in less academic circles, is that being libertarian means that I am 'selfish'.

Let's explore this further. What do these people mean when they accuse libertarians of being selfish? What I think it meant is that because libertarians do not support much, if any, of the welfare state, then they are selfish; they wish not to give any of their money to the poor.

Whenever I come across this 'critique', I sigh, knowing that the criticiser does not understand libertarianism. It is indeed true that libertarians do not think that the government should give tax money to the poor. But it is that specific practice - the government taking money from some citizens against their will to give it to other citizens - that libertarians take issue with. It is the against my will part of taxation that I believe to be wrong; not the giving to others (Here I must differentiate from objectivists, who believe, as far as I'm aware, that all altruism is not only counter-productive, but is wrong. I do not understand the thinking here).

Giving all your money to charity is totally in line with libertarianism. It may well be that some libertarians are libertarians only because they are selfish, and do want to keep all their money for themselves. But this is not part of the core philosophy of libertarianism; libertarianism makes no comment on selfishness.

It might be argued, by non-libertarians, that they are absolutely fine with giving their money to the government to dish out to those less fortunate. To which I say - good for you! How very selfless. But that doesn't legitimise the government taking money off others. If I was to give money to cancer research, that doesn't mean I should be able to point a gun to the head of my next door neighbour and force him to do the same. If the government were to stop taxing for welfare, those selfless individuals could still give to the poor through private charity.

It could be argued that the sort of individualism which a libertarian society promotes will eventually lead to selfishness. This might be true (although I doubt it - America, traditionally the paragon of liberty, has far higher giving to charity as a percentage of income than most countries), but even if it was, the goal of 'avoiding making people selfish', does not legitimise the use of violence. Furthermore, doesn't the very notion sound ridiculous? The state, that behemoth of the polity, can nurture virtue and banish selfishness. Don't make me laugh.