The Public Option: How to Expand Freedom, Increase Opportunity, and Promote Equality

Whenever you go to your local public library, send mail via the post office, or visit Yosemite, you are taking advantage of a longstanding American tradition: the public option. Some of the most useful and beloved institutions in American life are public options--yet they are seldom celebrated as such. These government-supported opportunities coexist peaceably alongside private options, ensuring equal access and expanding opportunity for all. Ganesh Sitaraman and Anne Alstott challenge decades of received wisdom about the proper role of government and consider the vast improvements that could come from the expansion of public options. Far from illustrating the impossibility of effective government services, as their critics claim, public options hold the potential to transform American civic life, offering a wealth of solutions to seemingly intractable problems, from housing shortages to the escalating cost of health care. From broadband internet to higher education, The Public Option reveals smart new ways to meet pressing public needs while spurring healthy competition. More effective than vouchers or tax credits, public options could offer us all fairer choices and greater security.

About the Author :
Ganesh Sitaraman is Professor of Law and Director at the Program on Law and Government at Vanderbilt Law School. He is also cofounder and Director of Policy for the Great Democracy Initiative and a columnist at the Guardian U.S. He served as Policy Director for Elizabeth Warren during her successful Senate campaign and as her Senior Counsel in the Senate. He is the author of The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic, a New York Times notable book. Anne L. Alstott is the Jacquin D. Bierman Professor at the Yale Law School and author of A New Deal for Old Age and No Exit: What Society Owes Parents, among other books. She has won her school's top teaching award five times in her career. She has written or cowritten pieces for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, and Slate, and has appeared on the public radio programs Marketplace and On Point. Christopher Grove is an award-winning, veteran actor and narrator based in Los Angeles. He guest-stars on top network TV shows (recurring on Season 2 of David Fincher's Mindhunter, How To Get Away With Murder, Pretty Little Liars, Revenge, Scandal, Masters of Sex, Justified, Agent Carter, and more). He has performed at major theaters around the country, including the Mark Taper Forum and the Public Theater. Chris has lived and worked in London, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and some of the places in between. He's the son of a college professor and World War II veteran and of a social worker. He has degrees from the University of Toronto (history and political science) and the University of Southern California (print journalism), where he graduated in the top of his class.