I had a reaction to this passage as well. In an otherwise cogent piece, the author maybe felt the need to pander to a specific streak in the cultural zeitgeist. Or maybe he actually believes this without considering the reality of it (i.e. your points). In my experience, a vast majority of the people I meet that invoke inequality as a symptom of exploitation haven't fully considered the world as it is, rather, they imagine the world as they wish to see it. They are the types that make proposals not for how they manifest, but for how they believe they should manifest. It generally comes down to the belief that if everyone acted as they did, the world would be just.