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

Ganesh Sitaraman · Anne L. Alstott

Jul 2019 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Christopher Grove

About this audiobook

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 the author of The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution.

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, among other books. She has written or cowritten pieces for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Huffington Post, 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 and has performed at major theaters around the country, including the Mark Taper Forum and the Public Theater.