In a recent ruling piece"How Trump ’s immigration plan hurt American citizens ' pocketbooks"published in the political newspaper The Hill , Maurice Goldman criticized President Donald Trump ’s plans for an immigration crackdown by pointing to the cost of build up aborder wall , hiring more enforcement agents and reducing effectual immigration channels . But what was particularly interesting was the editorialist ’s choice of word in one fundamental passage . In dividing line to the newspaper headline , which used the word " citizen , " Goldman instead observe that " you , the consumer " would devote for the disbursement of Trump ’s policy .
That may not have been just a slip . It ’s hard to say exactly when it started , but in recent long time , there seems to be an increasing tendency to habituate the terminus " consumer " interchangeably with " citizen , " even when the discussion is n’t take place strictly in an economic framework . And some political experts say that the pick of news may divulge a subtle but worrisome shift in how we see ourselves and our office in American society — away from the notion of run together with others toward the usual goodness , and toward a nation of individuals mainly motivate by self - interest .
Using consumer interchangeably with citizen " has become part of our default treatment — the normal way we view society and mass , " says Jathan Sadowski , who realise a doctorate from the University of Arizona ’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society , and currently is a guest lecturer at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands . ( He also write this 2015 article , titled"Stop Treating Citizens as Consumers . " )
" Just reckon at the recent presidential election , " he say via an email audience . " This consumer vs. citizen language is often used when analyst and pundit talk about elections : voters are just consumers with predilection and the election is a marketplace of production to select from . In the store we vote with our dollar sign . We are told that election are functionally the same thing . You just use a voting instead of a buck to shake off your vote . This discernment of democratic processes as a marketplace is just one more position where the citizen is overpower by the consumer . "
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary , both words have been around for C . The word citizendates back to the 1300s , though it in the beginning meant the dweller of a urban center , and did n’t take on its present meaning — a person who has right and responsibility in a society — until around 1610 . The word consumerarose in the 1400s , though back then , it think of someone who squanders or wastes things . It took on a less dyslogistic economic meaning — that is , a mortal who uses goods and service and does the opponent as someone who ’s a producer — around 1745 .
Michael Munger , director of the Philosophy , Politics and Economics Program at Duke University ’s political science department , notes that in accord toGoogle Books ' Ngram Viewer , the word " consumer " seldom appeared in mark until about 1900 . But begin around then , it steadily resurrect until it passed up " citizen " in frequency in the late fifties , and now is used about three time as often .
Munger hypothesise that the geological fault in employment had to do with the rise in the 20th century of reformist politics . " The Progressives primarily visualize citizens as being helpless , immobilize by with child forces — peculiarly corporations — that citizens could n’t manage with , " he writes in an email . The New Deal societal programs devised by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s and Lyndon Johnson ’s Great Society effort of the sixties , he contend , reward the estimate that participation in politics " was mostly a way of getting your share of consumption . "
Politicians ' increase use , starting in the sixties , of sophisticatedmarketing techniquesborrowed from sellers of products such as breakfast cereal , elevator car and antiperspirants also may have play a role . Today , campaigns gather and analyse mountains of datum to conductmicrotargetingefforts , which search at individual voters ' attitudes and behaviors and what might be the best fashion to get to them . And government itself is being judge as if it were a consumer commercial enterprise . The American Customer Satisfaction Indexeven rates the federal administration on how people feel about their interactions with it . ( It get a 68 percent prescribed rating in 2016 , up from 63.9 percent the previous year . )
This is n’t just semantics , either : The words we use can have an impact on how we experience . A2012 studypublished in the diary Psychological Science found that the selection of word may exert a subtle influence upon how we see ourselves . In one part of the study , multitude who answer a " consumer answer survey " run to show more materialistic , ego - center value than those who answered a " citizen " sight . In another part , investigator present subjects with suppositional post in which multitude had to deal water from a well , and labeled them as either consumers or citizens . Subjects who got the " consumer " personal identity tended to distrust others more about water sharing , felt less in partnership with the other issue , and felt less personally responsible , compared to those who were label " citizen . "
To the extent that the role of citizen and consumer is merging , " it seems to emphasize a shift away from watch Americans as having responsibility in our political arrangement and toward a more individualist sentiment of what it mean to be American , " allege Josh Pasek , an adjunct professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan . " Your job as an American citizen requires that you execute central popular norm , such as being informed , deliberating about political issue , and participating in civic and political life . As an American consumer , your legal action are relevant only to the extent that they react to economical motivator . The duty to be hire and participatory is not your own , but rather count on a system that is oriented to impart you in . "
Frank Trentmann , a prof of history at the University of London and author of the book"Empire of thing : How We Became a World of Consumers , from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty - First,“thinks that the blurred distinction between consumer and citizen may make it tougher for multitude to come together to solve job . " Not all consumer see the globe in the same way , and hence concert military action is difficult , " Trentmann pen in an electronic mail .
That ’s why some would care to see us go back to seeing ourselves differently . As political commentator Mark Shieldswrote in 2012 , possibly it ’s time that Americans started insisting that leader plow them not like consumer , " but as citizen who recognize that we have , in gain to right and privileges , real obligations and responsibility . "
