Funny thing is that socialism tends to reject religion, but price controls originated in Christian thought.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_price
What a lot of people don't realize is that prices aren't inherently good or bad in and of themselves, they just are. If somebody else is willing to pay 20k for a diamond, that's the price of a diamond.
No amount of legislation or argument will drive down the price of a diamond to what it "should" be.
See http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240527023034600045791921.... The prices of electronics dropped in price after a governmental mandate. Guess what? After the store inventories were depleted, they never got any more TVs to sell.