From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:
Ayn Rand observed:
The basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue and value.
Do not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which, in fact, altruism makes impossible.
Why impossible? Think of the psychology that altruism leads to in practice. If my first duty is to live for others, then not only am I putting the one life I’ll ever have “on the back burner”; by logical extension I must conclude that it is other people’s first duty to live for me. Put more directly, each of us has no moral responsibility to support ourselves materially or spiritually, because that is other people’s responsibility. On the contrary, each of us has a moral right to other people’s time, effort, and property, because it is their responsibility to support us. In other words, altruism turns us all into predators, where any person with an unfulfilled need, unsatisfied want, or penchant for bad behavior can rightfully demand that other people fix his life. In practice, then, every person represents a threat to everyone else. What measure of kindness, good will, or respect is possible in a world where each of us is surrounded by moochers and predators? What measure of kindness, good will, or respect is possible under a moral code that encourages, as an ideal, that each of us to become a moocher or a predator?