If you believe in Freedom, you believe in Capitalism?

The other week I had dinner with a Professor I had during my Freshmen year in economics. A couple hours into dinner we got into a deep discussion about freedom. He argued that in all of history no politico-economic system has been freer and more prosperous than Capitalism. He argued that in Capitalism, and unlike any other system, people make deals with one another through voluntary action. And it is this freedom, the ability to pursue your own rational self interest, that has unleashed such productive genius and prosperity equaled by no other time in history.

He had a great point. One shared by many Ayn Rand, Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, Hayek, and/or Mises fan.

However I had one question for him which he walked around. Let me set it up for you:

In my microeconomics class we talked about the concept of price elasticites and inelasticies. That is the % change in demand/supply in response to a % change in price. Take something like an Oscar Meyer hot dog. If tomorrow Oscar Meyer suddenly raised the price of their hot dogs by $100 dollars than most people would have no problem easily switching to something like Ball Park Frank hot dogs because it's a good substitute (and did I mention they plump when you cook 'em).
That is an example of a good that is relatively price elastic, the demand for it changes a lot when you change the price.

Now let's take a look at the prescription drug Elaprase. It's a drug used in replacement therapy for people with Hunter's Syndrome. It costs $4,215 for a 6mg vial and has no close substitutes. Suppose tomorrow the makers of Elaprase decide to raise the price of the drug by a $1,000. I would argue not very many people with Hunter's Syndrome currently using the drug would stop buying it. In economics we say that this good is relatively price inelastic.

My point here is that goods of certain types have some "sticky" prices. That the demand for it doesn't really change all that much if the prices change a bit perhaps alot.

This comes down to the question that I had for my Professor: If goods have varying price elasticities then does freedom truly exist in every transaction you make? I argue that there are varying degree's of freedom depending on the transaction. And that when it comes to goods like MP3 players and coffee mugs yeah there is a lot of freedom but when it comes to cutting edge prescprtion drugs that might save your life there's a lot less freedom. Yeah noone's holding a gun to your head forcing you to make the transaction but in some instances the ability to say no mean your the one pulling the trigger.

I'm convinced that Capitalism is blind.