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Government Treating Their Citizens As Customers

Decent Essays

I agree that a government treating their citizens as customers is problematic. The problem is how each party views the other’s role in this relationship and the desired outcomes of the transaction. Customers have a very passive relationship to their providers; the customer pays money for a service and the business provides that service. The business maintains total control over what goods and services it provides and may not provide options from which customers can choose (Resnikoff, 2013). The customer can choose with whom it does business and the provider can choose to whom it provides the service. In this situation, the focus in purely monetary: the more money we “customers” put into the government, the more goods and services we should receive. The government must also acknowledge “the customer is always right” (Bellavita, 2013) and that it has an obligation to provide the services they claim to supply. This is impossible by government standards because there are too many customers with different views on what is right so in this transactional relationship, those with the most money will receive their version of what is right. In essence, the government can be purchased; those with the most money will have the most influence.

The other problem with this view is it causes both parties to focus on individual needs instead of those of the collective (Bellavita, 2013). When we view ourselves as customers, this also encourages us to be more competitive and focus

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