Customers of the Country
Mine is a scholarly personality, with a tinge of clownishness to it. No wonder I wound up doing a stint in academia. More than three decades ago, when I started my first “real” job at a university, I was told by a clerk in the bursar’s office: “Students are customers.” I responded, “No, they’re not.” The clerk went all agape and agog, sputtering: “Well! If they’re not customers, what are they?” “They’re students,” I said. She scowled, said no more, and shoved at me whatever paperwork I was supposed to fill out.
It wasn’t the last time I would hear that characterization of students, nor was it the only birdbrained mantra heard around that place during my tenure there—for instance, “outcomes assessment”, “mission statement”, and “do more with less”. I endured that institution’s moral vacancy for longer than might be expected, mainly because I like being around students (being a lifelong one myself) and congenial libraries. The fact that a river ran through the campus was another attractive feature. Even so, time finally came to move on. And so I did.
These days it’s popular to proclaim: “Government ought to be run as a business!” And there it is again, the old chestnut: “Do more with less!” Raise a question about the wisdom of such motheaten slogans, and you will be told straight away: “That’s the bottom line! You don’t like it? Love it or leave it!” Or more oafishly: “You’re fired!” Nevertheless, government—by its very nature—is not a business. The responsibility, the duty, of government—or rather those who serve in it—is not primarily about counting money but instead it’s about the well-being of its citizens, all of them. “Citizens” are not necessarily “taxpayers,” though the overwhelming majority of citizens are taxpayers. (Many non-citizens are taxpayers too.) Corporations are not people, though they are controlled by people who have relatively more money than the average citizen. So, let it be noted: the primary responsibility of government is to its citizens—keeping them safe, keeping them healthy, and, given wise leadership, keeping them, if not happy, comparatively content. The government—or perhaps we should call it the “polity”—ought to be focused on the common wealth, which is to say, the wealth held in common. Wealth such as this cannot be gauged in numbers tricked up as dollars, as is the case when dealing with common stocks. Even an economist will admit to this. Oh well.
I’ve now voiced my concerns on this matter, as I did with that well-heeled clerk in the bursar’s office oh so long ago back in the privatized State of Idaho. I have no expectation that the words I muster here will have any greater effect. I’ve endured the stark sloganeering and witless cruelty of my native land for longer than might be expected, mainly because I like being around feckless dreamers (being a lifelong one myself) and congenial libraries—not to mention all those rivers that run through it. But oh the hour is growing late.
