Are you suggesting such a thing is the case?

Question, do you think this short-term coercion is a common mechanistic used in our society? I would argue that most of the coercion you see in organized societies is used to force coordination (aka long-term)

I agree with jimrandomh's assessment that "coercion" is too broad and vague of a term. There are many kinds of coercion which use many different mechanisms ranging from physical violence to forceful persuasion and emotional appeals. There's the physical bullying kind of coercion, there's coercion by threat of losing social approval, there's being at work and being told by your boss to do something you don't like, there's a parent telling their kid to go to bed or else, there's a lover trying to guilt their partner into giving them sex...

And "short-term" versus "long-term" isn't very well defined, either. (What about medium-term?) It's a bit like asking, "what do you think is more common, thinking for a short- or long-term purpose"?

I'm also not sure that "short-term" and "long-term" are a good way of classifying things into near and far. For instance, ideals about improving and ennobling yourself in school are "far" and part of what motivates one to go to school, and this is a long-term objective. But the actual task of going to school in the present and actually attending the lectures and doing the exercises is "near". (And effectively studying is difficult because the near and far modes don't necessarily pull in the same direction.)

I would say that if we did presume that it made sense to classify coercion as either "near" or "far" - which I'm not convinced that it does - then it would make more sense to put it as "near". Coercion usually isn't about remote noble ideals, but concrete pragmatic self-benefiting goals. That's "near". Even though there may often be a high temporal distance, the one doing the coercion can often see the progress being made towards the ultimate goal in the here and now.

On readability when I say the below what do you think? "I thought that coercion may be one of the mechanisms that have enabled humans to engage and execute long term plans."

This particular sentence was easy to read. The next one was not.

To say it a different way. People often don't engage in long-term action that are good for them because they are unable to overcome their resistance to paying the short term costs. Leaders, those in a group able to exercise coercion, are no different but have the ability to coerce members into paying the short-term costs leading them to engage in more long-term action.

And this is much better than the original. In particular, the role of leaders was not originally clear.