The Feel-Good Society: How the "Customer" Metaphor Is Undermining American Education, Religion, Media and Healthcare

STUDENTS AS CUSTOMERS? Patients as customers? Religious believers as customers? In the past 30 years, the "customer" metaphor has infiltrated virtually every corner of American life. Proponents suggest that schools, doctors, hospitals, governments and churches become more accountable when they treat their constituencies as customers. But has that really happened? And what might be the dangers of that strategy?

THE FEEL-GOOD SOCIETY examines the immediate and long-term implications of the customer metaphor, concluding that it has fundamentally changed the attitudes and behaviors of Americans, and the nature of American social institutions.

THE FEEL-GOOD SOCIETY poses the question of whether the customer metaphor is undermining — perhaps even diametrically opposed to — the fundamental purposes of institutions like churches and schools. It concludes that new approaches to marketing and new approaches to leadership are needed to insure that America’s social institutions return or remain true to their missions.