We Are Not “Customers”, We Are “Taxpayers”

There is a difference!

by Michael J Badagliacco, “MJB”

I recently had a conversation that brought a troubling reality into sharp focus. City, County, State and Federal governments routinely refer to the people they serve as "customers." This is not a minor slip of language. It reveals a deeper confusion about the relationship between government and those who fund it.

The Terminology Problem

When officials call us customers, they blur a line that should remain crystal clear. A customer walks into a store, evaluates options, and decides whether to buy. If the product or service fails to meet expectations, the customer can leave and take their business elsewhere. Taxpayers enjoy no such freedom. We pay our taxes because the law requires it. Staying in our homes and communities means complying with the tax obligations imposed by the jurisdictions where we live. There is no shopping around for a different government.

Why the Distinction Matters

This difference in choice carries profound consequences for accountability. A business exists to generate profits for its owners. It must satisfy customers or risk losing them to competitors. Government exists to serve the public using resources entrusted to it by the people. Those resources are not profits earned through voluntary exchange. They are taxes and fees extracted under the authority of law. When government adopts customer language, it subtly shifts the mindset away from stewardship and toward something closer to a commercial transaction where officials act as providers and residents merely consume.

Government as Public Trust

Our system of government rests on the principle that public officials hold taxpayer money in trust. The services we receive, from roads and public safety to water and parks, are funded by the very taxes we pay. In many cases we pay twice: once through general taxation and again through specific fees for the services themselves. A private business builds its offerings with its own capital and assumes the risk of failure. Government assumes no such risk. It simply collects more when costs rise or priorities shift. This arrangement demands the highest level of transparency and frugality precisely because the money is never truly the government's to spend as it pleases.

Restoring Proper Perspective

Referring to taxpayers as customers may feel modern or businesslike to some administrators. In practice it weakens the essential understanding that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed and remains accountable to them. We are not patrons of a municipal enterprise. We are the owners of the public trust. Elected officials and staff serve at our pleasure and with our resources. When that relationship is clearly understood, conversations about budgets, priorities, and performance take on a different character. Waste becomes more visible. Accountability becomes non-negotiable. And the true purpose of government, to protect rights and provide essential services efficiently, regains its proper place.

The next time you hear an official describe you as a customer, remember who actually pays the bills. We are taxpayers. That word carries both obligation and authority. It is time our governments spoke with the same clarity.