IMHO the problem is deeper than that. Economists often wrongly and silently presume that free market equilibria lead to desirable states of society but there is nothing in their theories that would warrant this. It works for simple trades (bargaining) but once you're at the level of institutions there is no need for a match between institutional needs and the preferences and desires of individuals in a society. For instance, to build a certain product a company needs a certain distribution of different types of work. These needs of the larger institution need not match individuals' life choices at all. Some jobs can even be so desirable that workers are willing to lose money in the long run (that's e.g. how Amazon benefits from selling the works of self-publishers who often overall lose money). Consequently, since people need to make a living, even in a fully functioning free job market there can be a substantially large number of people who are pressed into choices that make their lives miserable.