Market Failure

There is no such thing as "market failure." Market failure is the excuse that socialists trot out to explain why something that *they personally* want to see more of is not supplied in greater quantities by the market. There is no way, independent of the market itself, to look around the market and *objectively* claim that "there is not enough X being produced". If there really were not enough X being produced, i.e. demand outstrips supply, the profit for producing and supplying X would rise relative to other lines of production, and invite investment in producing and supplying X.

A neat trick by governments, however, is to artificially restrict the supply of X, via things like licensure, regulation, taxation, etc. so that the demand really does exceed supply, prices are kept artificially high, but the supply is not allowed to increase in response to the price signals. The government then steps in and declares a "market failure", and uses this excuse to monopolize the provision of that good or service entirely. This is seen over and over again, for example in health care and health insurance. Another famous example is childcare. Make the hoops that you have to jump through to open a childcare business ridiculous, hence keep childcare artificially scarce and expensive so that most parents cannot afford it, and then declare the need for the state to provide daycare and such for parents.

It always helps when you are trying to engineer a "market failure" to make it a crime to supply the thing you want to make it look like is not being supplied.