Canada

I assume by "them" you mean the government?

The government doesn't manage housing or food. That's all the work of the free market baby! If there was a government run food store, for example, it would be able to operate at cost since it doesn't necessarily need to turn a profit. Heck, it could even run at a loss if we as a society agreed it has value beyond dollars. In other words, we could offset the loss with tax dollars if we agreed it was of benefit to society.

I agree that monopolies are a problem though and that the government needs to actually start enforcing some anti trust. But taking an active role with crown corporations will also help reduce monopoly power, so its a tool to use along with enforcement.

As for health care, that's a provincial concern but I also agree. Where I come from, the people around me keep voting in the very party who for over 40 years has proven to be incapable of managing health care. And yet there are functional public health care systems out there. So it's not a matter of a government being incapable of managing health care. Rather, we have strong evidence that a conservative government is incapable of managing health care.

Of course there are lots of examples of governments managing things poorly, but there are also countless examples of private companies managing things poorly. The difference I think is that with the government you at least have some say. I don't think the government should run everything, but certain key industries (mostly infrastructure type things) I think would be better off in public hands.