This article, through an investigation of the development of the concept of the "consumer", argues that recent thinking on consumerism is likely to radically change the metaphors and processes of much business management, and that these changes are likely to feed through into further calls for a restructuring of concepts and practices in the public sector arena. It will describe the history of the concept of consumerism, and critically examine its new conceptualization. It will suggest that the adoption of the concept, and of related management practices, heavily damages public sector and welfare state agendas by limiting the lexicon used to describe the benefits of education. It will further argue that if public sector and welfare state agendas are to be regenerated, a re-conceptualization of the rights and responsibilities of professionals within the public sector needs to be made.