"Protect" is why people face huge tax and gov debt and finding it hard to make ends meet, and see products that people don't want still being produced. Free market function on allowing mis-allocation of capital to be normalized (i.e. wiped out) by companies going bankrupt, freeing up labour and whatever assets left for other uses. Why should gov prop up company that makes thing nobody wants? Look at China it didn't work, they had to let many state companies go bankrupt in the end.