Libertarianism Is Humanism

I find Jen Hancock's assertion that libertarianism is rarely compatible with humanism puzzling. Libertarianism has significant ethical theories of social contract. Contractarian libertarians and other contractarians disagree on the content of the social contract. Libertarianism is individualistic but I do not know anyone who opposes helping people in need. But taxation is another matter: it can be seen as a selfish imposition of the will of the ruling class on its subjects. If economics had proven taxation beneficial to all, that would be another matter, but taxation is always harmful to many people. Humanism is compatible with strict individualism that forbids sacrificing anyone even if that is not what all libertarians believe in. The welfare state has roots in Christian paternalistic ethics, so it could be argued that humanism is more compatible with libertarianism than with welfare statism. Economics supports the view that taxation is very harmful in the long term.