The public option is not, in my opinion, even an option. If health care is to be fixed in this country, we must have a means of providing care that is not part of the commercial marketplace. Profit considerations are bad for your health, which means the public option is the only healthy means of assuring all Americans receive quality health care.

The debate over the public option is really a debate over the efficacy of two means of providing a product: the private sector, in particular major corporations, and the government, who some would argue is the biggest corporation of all. I say this is a discussion the country desperately needs.

Our economy is in tatters because the private sector was allowed by government to behave irresponsibly and now all Americans are paying a price. Government has a role in ensuring we have an economy that is strong, vital and working for everyone, not just a handful of stockholders and their pals. But government has to remain responsive to market conditions and allow for innovation and individual effort. I believe government can actually support the market more effectively than the private sector, but only with an involved citizenry. That is, only with a progressive government that includes grassroots citizens at all levels of government decision-making can we avoid the errors of both the private and public sectors.

Oh yeah, good luck with that.

Corporations are uniquely privileged in this country. They have acquired the rights of an individual, yet individuals within them are shielded from the legal, and often the economic, consequences of corporate behavior. Yet everything a corporation does is based on the decisions and actions of individuals. It's truly a bizarroworld where rewards far exceed worth and consequences can be skipped with a call to the lawyers.

Corporations have the ability to unite money, resources and labor to provide products and services unimaginable by small, private businesses. This can be a good thing, bringing millions of people things they desire or need at an affordable cost. It can be destructive as well, as the collapse, not to mention crap products, of GM shows. Or the way Dow has avoided responsibility for the horrific disaster in Bhopal, India.

Corporations will continue to be a fundamental part of the national and world economies for the foreseeable future. What's needed are not diatribes against them but an understanding of how they work: Not just the how, but the why. And there are usually two driving factors behind any corporation.

One, profit. In legal terms, that would be "fiduciary responsibility". The Board (generally) of a corporation has an obligation under law to take good care of the money invested by stockholders. That obligation usually means they must make a profit, and they must put making that profit above all other considerations, including social goods. (Of course, they must do so legally, but this is not a comedy post.)

Second, the corporate mission. Corporations have reasons for existing beyond making a profit or even making products or providing services. Often these are vague, pointless blobs of blather that serve no other function than to show how perceptive, brilliant, compassionate, etc, the current Board of Directors is: "We will strive to provide synergy across a structured range of integral technologies utilizing technologies and bla bla bla." Means dick. On occasion, however, generally through the meddling of do-gooder stockholders or Board members, something tangible will fall into a mission statement: "We will ensure our customers receive quality health care."

It is possible that Congress could force health care-related corporations to place the care of their customers on an equal standing with fiduciary responsibilities, but I don't see that happening. I don't see any way that corporations are going to allow their profit-making to be undermined in any way. So until we have a means of providing health care (covering health care costs) that does not have to figure corporate profits into the equation, we will have a broken system.