Are Markets and Governments Similarly Oppressive?

Joel Waldfogel's article in Slate Magazine compares the ways in which market outcomes are similar to government action where they fail to meet the needs of fringe minorities. This article starts by featuring the recent decision by Nike to manufacture sneakers that are especially designed to fit the feet of native Americans. To the author, the exclusion of 1.5% of the population shows the equivalence of markets and governments.

The comparison may be well-thought of to the extent that majorities often hold the political process hostage in the same manner that the dominant demographics are the unqualified obsession of most firms. However, the comparison breaks down because where government fixes problems, it compels the minority to pay taxes in spite of its concentration on the majority. To that extent therefore the tyranny of the market is bearable because it comes with no compulsion on the fringe minority to pay without providing sneakers in the first instance in addition to the fact that one often has the opportunity to find alternatives. Governments are not always evil but they certainly provide no such choice anywhere. Markets may share some of the objectionable features of governments but save for monopolies, the former is superior in its lack of compulsion.