Cohen said the privatization of public goods like education won't benefit the majority of Americans. Many fields that ordinary Americans assume to be public goods — public education, libraries, public transportation — don't fit that strict description. "In that definition, healthcare is a private good, not a public good," Cohen said. We're all familiar with the trickle-down claim that under a profit motive, business can provide public goods more efficiently than the government. "The alternative of private control over public goods is public control over public goods," he said.

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