Consumer.

I am sick and tired of being called a consumer. I’m not a “consumer” like some abstract statistic in some PR agency’s projections. I’m not a consumer like in a modern lawsuit between two large companies. I am a human being. I am a person. I would like to be called a person, a human and treated as such.

The word consumer lumps together all of us ordinary human beings with companies and even nations who buy stuff. Yes, we all do buy stuff. But I’d rather that our language, our culture and our social milleu STOPS calling me a consumer and starts calling me what I am – a human being. A person.

I wonder if it might change our mindset towards our fellow humans. Towards the people who use our services, towards the people we interact with commercially and non-commercially every day?

~ by copper on March 8, 2007.