Platform Pillar II
Governments should directly provide essential services rather than allowing private companies to extract profit from necessities. A real public option eliminates the middleman. It does not negotiate with the middleman.
There is a critical distinction between regulating private companies and competing with them. Price caps still leave corporations profiting from necessity. A true public option means the government provides the service directly—keeping wealth local, improving quality, and eliminating predatory middlemen through competition, not regulation.
This is not a radical idea. America already runs dozens of successful public options: the U.S. Postal Service delivers to 170 million addresses including 57% of rural post offices competitors abandon. The Tennessee Valley Authority serves 10 million customers across seven states. Over 2,000 municipal electric utilities operate nationwide. Federal crop insurance has existed since 1938. Public libraries see 1.3 billion annual visits with no subscription fees.
"When a public option generates revenue, it flows back to the people, because we are the shareholders."
Local governments can build online marketplaces where residents shop from local businesses. City-hired drivers deliver. Vendors pay flat fees. All revenue stays in communities instead of flowing to corporate platforms that captured $156 billion in third-party seller fees in 2024 alone.
California's CalRx program proved the model works. Generic naloxone prices across the entire market dropped 22% in a single quarter after CalRx entered. Insulin pens cost $11 through CalRx versus approximately $424 for branded alternatives—estimated savings of $2,000 to $4,000 per patient per year.
The IRS Direct File program achieved 94% user satisfaction before being shut down. The private tax preparation industry spent over $47 million lobbying since 2003 to prevent government competition. Americans currently spend an average of 13 hours and $290 preparing returns for information the government already possesses.
The military already runs over 900 childcare centers serving more than 200,000 children, with 97% meeting national accreditation standards—compared to just 9% of civilian centers. Fees scale to family income at roughly 7%, with government covering 50–70% of costs. Private childcare alternatives cost families $23,000 to $40,000 annually.
Vienna's 220,000 publicly-owned apartments cover 60% of residents. Only 18% are rent-burdened, compared to 58% in cities like Los Angeles. In the Netherlands, nonprofit housing associations manage 2.3 million units funded entirely through rental income—no subsidy required.
When government provides quality service affordably, private companies either improve or lose customers—without explicit price controls. This forces genuine competition on value rather than allowing monopolies to charge whatever they want for the privilege of standing between people and a necessity.
The U.S. Postal Service generates $80.5 billion annually. Those revenues fund other services rather than enriching shareholders. That is the model: public institutions that serve the public and return their value to the public.
Industries with high profit margins actively prevent public alternatives through campaign donations, lobbying expenditures, and killing successful pilot programs before public awareness spreads. We fund the leaders who build these alternatives anyway.