Agree entirely. I'll add transportation, education and utilities to that list. (K-8 + community college, train/subway transit, water+sewer service, electricity + phone + basic internet)

> Is there anything that should not be?

Everything non-essential to basic life? Hollywood motion pictures, video games, fasion-based apparel, toys, luxury furniture, hardware, collectable cards, privately-owned books, airplanes, etc.

---

This isn't a crazy idea. All of the US has a "public option" for postal mail, delivered to nearly every citizen in the nation at effectively zero profit margin. FedEx and UPS can happily exist and be wildly profitable, but they can't go too evil with their pricing or availability, because people will just switch to USPS. It keeps these private companies from exploiting everyone too much.

Similarly, most of the US has a "public option" for water, which is provided by the government to every single person in the district (regardless of income), directly at their home and at zero profit margin. You can buy "luxury water" (Bottled Dasani, Nestle, 'Culligan Man', whatever), and those private companies can happily make massive profits all day long. But these companies can't exploit the market for water too badly, because there is always a public option to fall back on and opt-out with, when these companies inevitably become evil.

Nearly every part of our society that is currently broken, is that way because it's a required purchase critical to sustain basic living, and there's no reasonable way to opt-out.

If Hasbro goes evil and prices toys at $10k each, it's fine, because I can just choose not to buy them. I don't need toys to live. In this way, their greed can be kept somewhat in-check.

But if a hospital prices the ER room at $10k, I can't opt out, or I'll literally die. If local housing market charges $10k/day rent, I can't opt out or I'll immediately become homeless and unemployable and, effectively, dead. There is no "check" on these people's greed, because all humans are required to purchase these things, just to sustain their own life. So the price can just grow indefinitely, and none of us can really directly do anything about it.

This is why public services are so vital, why it's so critical that they exist and work well and grow.