Choice vs. freedom

Up until recently, I made the mistake that many do, believing that choice and freedom were interconnected - that if someone had more than one option and the ability to choose between the two, then they were exercising freedom and thus were uninhibited. I know now that just because one seemingly has a choice does not necessarily mean that they are free, and there is a spectrum with "forced choosing" at one end and "free choosing" at the other, illustrating this discrepancy. What I would like to discuss a little more, though, is the idea of forced choosing. When one is faced with a choice where there is not a reasonable or acceptable alternative and thus they technically do not have a choice, it is a forced choice. But if you are to take a step back from that, and ask yourself the question, "why are these people faced with a situation where they do not have a reasonable or acceptable alternative?" it gets trickier. For example, the person who is faced with the "choice" (this word has a false connotation to it now for for me) of either working at a fast food restaurant or starving really does not have a option and will choose working at the fast food option, but it begs the question, why are there people out there who are faced with such a one-way street? I know that blaming people is never the answer, but I cannot help but blame out society for allowing people to be in such a situation where their only other option is starving. I understand that work is work, and that working at a fast food restaurant is better than not working at all, but to think that some people are put between such a wall and a hard place is truly terrible. I'm not saying that I know what the solution is, because I don't, but merely expressing my discontent with the idea of forced choosing and the consequent lack of freedom that goes along with it.