Non-voluntary exchange
One argument made by defenders of capitalism is that it involves voluntary exchange between people. If you buy an item of clothing, for instance, both you and the shop are free participants in the purchase. You can choose to buy a different item, to buy elsewhere or not to buy anything at all.
Employment is seen in the same way. You can choose not to work for a particular employer and they can choose not to employ you, or to sack you. You can look for a job somewhere else, perhaps with better pay or better working conditions.
All these, it is claimed, are voluntary decisions by people who are free to make up their own minds and do as they wish. It is not the kind of coercion which existed under slavery or serfdom.
Except that, certainly where employment is concerned, it is not like that at all. You will have to work for someone, since if you do not, you will starve or have to get by, for a limited period only, on paltry unemployment benefits.
How much choice you have in finding another job depends on various factors, including your own abilities, the area where you live and the general state of the economy and the job market. Finding another job will be easier for some than for others, and it may mean lower pay and/or longer hours.
So the coercion involved in employment under capitalism is not identical to chattel slavery but it still means workers being in a subordinate position and having to do as their employer says. To say nothing of the exploitation that is part and parcel of wage labour.
Capitalism is emphatically not a matter of voluntary exchange, as workers have little choice but to work for a capitalist company in order to survive.
PB