Public Ownership
Essential infrastructure should be publicly owned and operated as service provision, not profit extraction.
Utilities
We expand the Seattle City Light model for public power. We create public broadband to compete with telecom monopolies. We treat water as public infrastructure. All are operated as public services, not profit centers.
Private utilities extract profits while providing poor service. Public utilities provide reliable service at cost. Seattle City Light demonstrates this works. Publicly owned utilities consistently provide better service at lower cost than private monopolies.
Transit
We build and operate transit publicly with no contracted cost overruns. We create integrated regional systems. Direct public operation means money goes to service, not contractor profits.
Private transit contractors extract profits, deliver late, and run over budget. Public operation builds efficiently and operates reliably. The contrast is stark wherever direct comparison exists.
Banking
We create state public banks modeled on Bank of North Dakota. We establish postal banking for basic services. We support and expand credit unions as cooperative alternative.
Public banks serve public interest, not shareholder returns. They provide capital for public projects, support cooperatives, and offer basic banking without extraction. Bank of North Dakota has operated successfully for over a century, proving viability.
Why Public Ownership
Natural monopolies (utilities, transit) don’t benefit from market competition. Competition in these sectors just creates waste through duplication. Public ownership provides service efficiently without profit extraction.
Essential services (banking, utilities, transit) shouldn’t be profit centers. They’re infrastructure that enables everything else. Treating them as public goods serves everyone better than allowing private extraction.
Integration With Full Platform
Public ownership eliminates extraction in essential services. Breaking corruption ensures public entities serve public, not contractors. Worker cooperatives can operate in competitive sectors while public ownership handles natural monopolies. This creates mixed economy where ownership form matches sector characteristics.
This is pragmatic, not ideological. Use the ownership structure that serves people best.