I wouldn't call your example coercion, unless one wants to stretch the term to include almost all social processes that shape human preferences and behavior. But if one did, what word would we use when someone says "Give me everything you own in exchange for this piano, or I'll blow your brains out and kick your dog"?
I'd like to reserve the word "coercion" for using force to force action. Persuasion and social pressure deserve a nicer name. Words and ideas I offer here may be used freely and without attribution.
I object to stretching the use of this term for the same reason that I object to the debasement of WMD. If (as was recently argued) nukes = nerve gas = burning phosphorous = (why not?) napalm -- all of them "weapons of mass destruction", haven't we eroded, at least somewhat, the moral line that sets nuclear war off limits?
Likewise, if discrimination = genocide (as I've heard from time to time), isn't the concept, and horror, of genocide cheapened? Words and ideas I offer here may be used freely and without attribution.
The 'coercion' in the piano example is the process whereby the ownership of a piano is established as a norm for those in a particular socio-economic segment. Much in the same way, 'correct' ideas and opinions on the extraction and stewardship of natural resources, the environment and economic activity need to be established as a norm of 'all right thinking individuals', as the 'markets are best' mantra is right now.
