Voluntaryism is based on the idea that you don't own other people, in whole or in part.
Rights are those things, which already exist and belong to each individual in equal measure. They are unalienable. That is, they cannot be transferred, taken, or given away. They can be violated; but they cannot be provided because they already exist. Further, if one assumes that rights may be given by the state (or granted by law), then that is also to assume that they may be taken away by the state. In which case, they were never rights at all but were at most, legal privileges. No state needs to exist to give me permission to live. I live already. My right to live was not granted to me by law, nor can the law justly deny me the right to live. (Samantha Lindsay, ''What is Just Law'')
Axiomatically (see Rothbard, Rand, etc.) you own yourself. This implies several things:
- you own your labor, and may trade for it as you wish, and nobody has any right to interfere with such trade, or to take any part of it (as "tax" or otherwise)
- you have a right to your life, that is, not to be killed or harmed if you do no harm
- you have a right to liberty
you have a right to property obtained through homesteading or voluntary trade
every individual has the same basic rights (although not to the same things—I have a right to my labor, you to yours), with NoSpecialPleadingForTheState
These rights also imply the NonAggressionPrinciple.
Although voluntaryism is politically (meaning, answering the question of where force is justified) similar to anarcho-capitalism, the article How Voluntaryism Transcends Anarchism expounds on how it can influence beyond politics and economics into culture and education, moving from "What do I have the right to do?" to "How can voluntaryism be applied toward a harmonious and productive society?"
See Also: Wikipedia page, 15 Ways You Are Probably Wrong About Anarchists, Agorists, and Voluntaryists