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If viewed in this way, then voters turn into nothing more than profit maximizers, and the vote is just one more buck to spend. Josh Pasek, an assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan, in an interview with journalist Patrick Kiger, said that viewing citizens as consumers¶¶Seems to underscore a shift away from viewing Americans as having responsibility in our political system and toward a more individualist view of what it means to be American.¶Your job as an American citizen requires that you fulfill key democratic norms, such as being informed, deliberating about political issues, and participating in civic and political life.¶As an American consumer, your actions are relevant only to the extent that they respond to economic incentives. The responsibility to be engaged and participatory is not your own, but instead depends on a system that is oriented to bring you in.