Elitist interventionists are convinced they can amend the workings of the market to make lives better for at least a targetted segment of the population. They are almost always wrong. From Cafe Hayek,
... from page 268 of Armen Alchian’s profound 1976 essay “Problems of Rising Prices,” as it is reprinted in Vol. 1 of The Collected Works of Armen A. Alchian(2006) (original emphasis):
The so-called shortage of gasoline and energy in the United States [during the 1970s] was precisely and only such a political attack. It could not have been brought about more cleverly and deceitfully even if the politically ambitious had explicitly written the script. Inflate the money stock; when prices rise, impose price controls to correct the situation. These controls lead to shortages which “require” government intervention to assure appropriate use of the limited supply and to allocate it and even to control and nationalize the production of energy. The powers of political authorities are increased; the open society is suppressed.
Brilliant. And it should be a fair warning for today and the future.