Jeff Jarvis hates the term "consumer." I'm with him on that one. Referring to myself and other U.S. citizens as "consumers" invokes images of pigs at a trough waiting to be "slopped" by new products and services. Society has changed, as Jeff points out:

For we don't just consume anymore; it's not a one-way world now. We produce. We report. We write. We edit. We improve. We amend. We remix. We comment. We argue. We correct. We distribute.

So what term should we use to describe the American public? I agree with a commenter to Jeff's post. I think "citizen" sounds rather nice.