Once government goes beyond protecting voluntary exchange as an impartial referee and attempts to determine particular outcomes, it disrupts the social cooperation that is the surest means to generally desirable outcomes. Examples of disruptive government incursions into market activity are unfortunately frequent. A particularly harmful form of government meddling is the attempt to outlaw market prices. When most people think of market prices they don't think of the communication and cooperation those prices allow. Consumers typically see prices as too high and therefore an impediment to their desire for more things.
Suppliers see the same prices as too low.
The unfortunate, and ironic, result of a price ceiling is to increase the cost of products to consumers. This ability of millions of people to coordinate their decisions with one another is the result of the information they communicate through market prices. At that price suppliers are willing to make available only Q S units of the product, while consumers are anxious to buy Q D units. The result is a shortage, as consumers cannot get as much of the product as they want. Any shortage would be eliminated by the price generated by market communication, so shortages are always created by government restrictions on market prices.