Public Option via Public Sphere

In a recent article on the news anthology website "The Week" it was reported that,

"In town meetings across Vermont last week, residents voted in favor of converting the Vermont Economic Development Authority into a public bank. Modeled after a similar bank in North Dakota, the Vermont proposal would create an institution that held and invested the state's funds locally, on the hope that doing so would provide a boost to the local economy and cut out middlemen bankers."

This article entitled "America should have a public option for everything" went on to mention such an option under discussion during the debate over ObamaCare and how it was squashed by health insurance and pharmaceutical company interests. In the comments section of the article I put forth the idea that auto insurance is a prime candidate for such a public option. Somewhere between capitalist and socialist practices may be a good fit for an America that is reeling from the effects of runaway free market ideologies.

I relate this discussion to the articles "The Public Sphere" and "It's Complicated...", both of which allude to the idea that todays public sphere may be evolving into an online based discussion. The former notes that in 1964 the radio, television, and newspapers had become the media of public sphere as opposed to public meetings or discussion. In the latter it is noted that current social media may increase public discussion but too often is a panacea for action. The article I note here, with it's comment section, is an emerging form of news and discussion that we only hope can shed the "slacktivism" associated with social media and add the interactivity absent in traditional news media to further a kind of public discussion that could lead to public action.