Employment is an explicit goal of the US welfare system. It's not supposed to keep you from starving if you don't work. That's why you are limited to three mont

Employment is an explicit goal of the US welfare system. It's not supposed to keep you from starving if you don't work. That's why you are limited to three months of food stamps every three years unless you are working. I do see rent control as directly comparable. Government observes a matrix of incomes and prices determined by self-interest in a market economy. Government determines some are not politically acceptable and modifies them. Now the military pays better than before, NYC rent is cheaper, and low-wage workers are more able to survive. Now people build businesses around contracting for the military, living in NYC, and hiring low-wage workers. If government later changes the payoffs to these activities, it's not the businesses' fault for relying on the prices the government set. Government set those prices to enable those businesses.