Terms like “wage and price controls” or “socialized medicine” or “government regulation” are invented by the business community and their government allies to immediately attack any policy the ownership class finds inconvenient as “socialism”. They simply do not want any part of anything that might hurt their profit or their freedom of action. Any doubt of this should be quickly dispersed by a quick review of the oil, pharma, tobacco, pesticide or any other big business lobby that has ever existed. These people simply do not give a shit about the rest of us. If you prefer your examples historical, read up on the railroad industry in the 19th century. They even coined a term to justify their monopolies: "destructive competition".

Does this mean we should let Big Government do whatever the hell it wants? Of course not. All interference and regulation in public or economic affairs must be carefully considered and gradually implemented. Even then, sometimes the best-meaning bureaucrats (even after meticulous study) make grievous mistakes, or conditions change, or bad people exploit the situation. That’s why we have governments and elections and democracy and a free press, so that the regulatory process itself can be regulated. And even then sometimes we err or villains take over.

But when people, or organizations, have a vested financial interest in any policy being carried out in a certain way, they simply cannot be trusted to act in the public interest. Its not that they are evil people (although there certainly is no shortage of THEM around) its just that they have an incentive to be evil. Every decision point in their procedure and process will always have a thumb on one side of the scale. All those “free market mechanisms”, like competition and the Law of Supply and Fucking Demand, which are supposed to automatically trend towards fairness and efficiency tend to be forgotten when it gives someone with power a little advantage. The “invisible hand” too often is totally non-existent.