Date of Award:

5-1980

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Applied Sciences, Technology, and Education

Department name when degree awarded

Home Economics and Consumer Education

Committee Chair(s)

Jane McCullough

Committee

Jane McCullough

Committee

Alison Thorne

Committee

Michael Etzel

Committee

William Furlong

Abstract

Although citizens do not generally consider themselves consumers of public services in the same Sense they consider themselves consumers in the retail marketplace, their demand for public services clearly affects what local government units provide. Citizens are involved daily with the consumption of public urban services; yet most consumer education textbooks and teaching materials ignore tax supported services.

The purpose of this study was to measure the satisfaction of consumers with certain public urban services, public officials, and several units of government.

Satisfaction was found to be correlated with age, length of residence in the community and the respondents' attitudes toward elected officials. There was no apparent correlation between satisfaction with services and income, education, or assessed valuation of the respondents' dwellings. Satisfaction scores of the four geographic areas sampled were not significantly different.

Respondents did not generally feel they received their money's worth in public services for what they paid in property taxes. They were, however, generally satisfied with the services they received.

Respondents also seemed more likely to voice dissatisfaction to retail distributors than to government agencies.

Checksum

02ecdf6b5fb0d09e9ff42f1aa2967926

Comments

Although citizens do not generally consider themselves consumers of public services in the same Sense they consider themselves consumers in the retail marketplace, their demand for public services clearly affects what local government units provide. Citizens are involved daily with the consumption of public urban services; ye t most consumer education textbooks and teaching materials ignore tax supported services.

The purpose of this study was to measure the satisfaction of consumers with certain public urban services, public officials, and several units of government.

Satisfaction was found to be correlated with age, length of residence in the community and the respondents' attitudes toward elected officials. There was no apparent correlation between satisfaction with services and income, education, or assessed valuation of the respondents' dwellings. Satisfaction scores of the four geographic areas sampled were not significantly different.

Respondents did not generally feel they received their money's worth in public services for what they paid in property taxes. They were, however, generally satisfied with the services they received.

Respondents also seemed more likely to voice dissatisfaction to retail distributors than to government agencies.

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .