calling citizens “customers” implies the only thing that matters is self-interest: What am I paying, and what am I getting for it? Ideally, citizenship involves something beyond self-interest. We all want to benefit from good government, but citizenship should have a collective dimension that transcends narrow cost-benefit calculations.
It doesn’t that sound far off from the tone I feel from a lot of people. Things like, “… the government should do x for me, and should stop doing y for those people.” I have put Ethan Porter’s book on my reading list, and hopefully I’ll get to it before it’s too late.