Libertarian vs. socialist

A few months before starting this blog, I started writing this email to someone. It has remained in my drafts folder, unsent, so I figured I'd just post it here. I was reminded of this today when I read the following quote here:

One difference between libertarianism and socialism is that a socialist society can’t tolerate groups of people practicing freedom, but a libertarian society can comfortably allow people to choose voluntary socialism.

What I'd written was the following:

I know what's right, and you know what's right. We don't think we know what's right, we are absolutely certain. That our philosophies are diametrically opposed is irrelevant, we each know what is right. The difference is that my philosophy is moral because I will not force you to conform to it.

I want you to keep more/all of your money. You want to take more/all of my money. The difference between my philosophy and your philosophy is the use of force. If you don't want to do what I want you to do, if you don't want to keep more of your money, I'm not going to force you to do so. I'm not going to prevent you from giving all of your money to charity. I'm not going to force you to spend your money on frivolous things or even force you to save and invest your money. I'm not going to force you to do anything.

But in your philosophy, if I don't want to do what you want, if I want to keep my money rather than give it to you, you will not grant me the same consideration. You won't refrain from using force to take my money. You will use coercion and legal means to take my money and, if it comes down to it, you will send people with guns to take my property. I will have no say in the matter. I won't even have the choice to freely give my money because you will already have taken it.