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Comment by checktheorder | Hacker News Reader

>We are not consumers, we are people.

I often base my vote, when all the candidates in a given election have similar policies, on how they refer to people.

Use of "Consumers" loses my vote instantly. "Taxpayers" is a yellow flag - if used in specific situations that involves concern over major public funds going to private businesses (like building a stadium for a pro sports team) I'll let it slide but otherwise it only raises suspicion in me. But if a politician consistently uses "citizen", I'll give them a little mental gold star.

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Citizen sounds like a pretty awful word choice in a country with so many non-citizen immigrants though (and non-immigrants for that matter). It's sound like they're deliberately being excluded.

I used to hate the word consumer too (I don't love it now either) but honestly basing your vote on it seems like a really coarse way to distinguish between good and bad candidates...

>Citizen sounds like a pretty awful word choice in a country with so many non-citizen immigrants though (and non-immigrants for that matter). It's sound like they're deliberately being excluded.

I was referring to its use in the context of an election, which is often limited to the citizenry (in any democracy).

Also, where I live, public figures who use the word "citizen" to refer to ordinary people often don't use it in the literal sense of the word when discussing public-interest matters. They're often using it to emphasize the responsibilities and rights that all people have in relation to the broader society. In other words, where I live it's not often used in an exclusionary xenophobic way, but instead in an inclusive common-purpose way that emphasizes our shared humanity. The xenophobes here tend to prefer "taxpayer".

> The xenophobes here tend to prefer "taxpayer"

The irony, I guess, being that the xenophobes probably intend to raise a distinction better delineated by the word "citizen".

I think it's because those with political influence who espouse xenophobic views also tend to dislike the poor. "Taxpayer" as an identity has connotations of "only the landed gentry should have a voice in society's management", whereas "citizen" connotes equal rights and a voice in society regardless of income.

Some countries allow legal non-citizen residents to vote (NZ for example) - you know, that whole no taxation without representation thing.

In the US some states or cities allow non-citizen legal residents to vote in some state and local elections (SF for examples allows non-citizen residents to vote for school boards)

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