Drop the Consumer Label

The Washington Post’s Color of Money columnist, Michelle Singletary says it’s time to drop the consumer label: One of my New Year’s resolutions is to stop referring to myself as a consumer. The idea for the resolution actually came from reader Tom Krohn, who suggested that it’s not just the country’s spending habits that need to change for the better, but the language we use to describe who we are.

“We Americans are so used to being referred to as ‘consumers’ that we comfortably fall into that role and do so conspicuously,” Krohn, a retired Navy submariner living in Arkansas, wrote to me. “Imagine an epitaph that read, ‘Michelle Singletary — A Wonderful Consumer.’ Not very satisfying, is it?”

No, Tom, it’s not how I want to live, or die.

We use the word consumer when referring to ourselves even when the topic isn’t about consuming. But look at the word consume. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, consume means “to do away with completely; destroy, to spend wastefully; squander.”

And yet we are no longer citizens but consumers. This recession has proved that things have to change, and still the message from many of our leaders continues to be that consumerism — consumers — will save the day. To be a consumer is equivalent to being a good American.

Continue Reading.

More Services