Government influence in the free market has consistently proved to be catastrophic to the quality of life of the average person. The reason is because every person and their mother wants money, and as such will make decisions that will lead to them making more money or spending less money. Due to this, the free market is surprisingly efficient and responsive to global phenomena, always looking for high quality goods and services at competitive prices. This pattern of human behavior incentivizes businesses and corporations at providing the best value composition to the consumer, balancing quality with price in order to sell enough products to turn a profit and continue existing. Capitalism isn't perfect, but it's perhaps the only economic system in the world which funnels self centered interests in such a way that society improves. Under capitalism, the name of the game is simple: provide something that brings value and you will become rich, it doesn't get simpler than that. This perfectly delicate system is completely uprooted with government intervention. In the case of welfare, which is supposed to serve as a temporary safety net for people trying to get back on their feet after an unfortunate event (being laid off, for instance), is used as an alternative to working, where lazy people are provided food stamps at the cost of the taxpayer and never seek to improve their quality of life. In the case of rent control, the reason rent is so expensive in pretty much every Western country is due to government zoning laws, NIMBYs and bureaucracy which artificially restrict competition and increase prices. In a free market, landlords are technically free to put whatever price they want on their apartments, but due to the overwhelming choice that the consumer has due to having more choices, they are incentivized to keep their margins thin so as to remain competitive. If you were renting an apartment and one day you decided to jack of the price 300%, do you seriously think anyone would continue to rent there? By jacking up the price, you actually make less money than before because now no one wants to live there. I find it laughable that you think education and healthcare at free. The truth is that your taxes pay for those things, not just your education and healthcare but everyone else's, too. You're not even getting a good deal, either, the healthcare and education that you do end up receiving is profoundly underwhelming, because at the end of the day, the government has zero incentives to provide anything of value. Under capitalism, everyone has a reason to provide value. The only reason governments of the past were seemingly better than today's governments is because there was a better culture back then. There was an emphasis on community, religiosity, which neoliberalism sought to destroy.