Yes I can see how it would hurt all the executives at say 10x the lowest paid employee. It might colapse our fake ecconomy.

i hereby nominate myself for this job. gotta use that law degree for something! if appointed, i will continue to read the consumerist daily, making its editorial staff and commenters an integral part of my decision-making process!

Enough with the freaking Czars already!

The Consumer Czar, leading the war on consumers.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

NO!
We can't just keep creating new government agencies which just become giant black holes for money. It is just more of the same bad thinking that got us into this bloody mess.

If anything, we should be getting rid of them. Whenever there is something like a snowstorm they say for all non-essential government employees not to come to work. Why not fire all of them since they are non-essential?
Surely that would save a hell of a lot of money. We can start with NASA.

@Tonguetied: Just look at how we won the drug war with the Drug Czar at the helm.

@GC:

Just like firefighters and freedom fighters!

I nominate Ben :)

@dlynch: That should be a requirement for all candidates!

@Tonguetied: Amen! If I hear of another Czar, I'm going crazy!

@Tonguetied: Agreed. I prefer the original "special assistant to the president on consumer affairs," although saying that a few times could leave one ... well, you know.

@Triborough: It's not a new agency, just one that went dormant under Reagan.

@Triborough:
by "non-essential" they mean that only the absolute minimum skeleton personnel in the most critical positions necessary to maintain some semblance of operations. believe me (as I've had the fortune/misfortune of being mission essential), as much as you might dislike the result of normal government related operations, you may not even achieve anything resembling a result from skeleton staffing

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with any type of czar.

I like how czars are now a good thing.

@Tonguetied: Would we (the country in general) be so excited about Czars if we were to use the alternate term, Dictator?

Joe Smith was appointed Consumer Affairs Dictator today. He said, "Heads will roll, mua ha ha ha."

@crazyasianman:

Agreed. For example, the firefighters have to come in, the person who works in the fore department doing their salaries does not.

Assuming that we like paying the firefighters, that person should be employed, but during a storm, they are non-essential.

@Tonguetied: @Tonguetied: @Tonguetied: @Tonguetied: way to be ignorant.

I hope there's not another Streltsy uprising. Maybe they should be calling these new heads Boyars, instead. If this really is a czar, I hope they're more like Peter the Great and not Nicholas the Second, or we'll have another Bolshevik uprising, only this time it will be the Consumerists rather than the "Communists."

I would like to mention that you can ask questions and post suggestions on the change.gov website.

@InfiniTrent: Maybe they'll call 'em something more user-friendly. Like "Kaiser."

there is a reason civilized society no longer has czars, I believe that the last one was poisoned, shot, stabbed, and then thrown in a river in freezing weather. of course then it's theorized that only the freezing water is what led to his death, maybe by taking the title czar you gain super human resistance to harm.

The term is derived from Caesar - just what we need, some more Caesar's to protect the people.

Why does consumerist always want to get into politics? Stay out of politics, you've got it wrong. You can't even proofread an article before publishing it, I think Obama should take his advice from actual, you know, professionals.

I love Czars!

@Ninja007: Considering these issues all involve the law and the economy I don't see how the site could "avoid politics."

I'd much rather have people in positions like the Attorney General's office who are on the little guy's side in a natural fashion.

I expect very, very little from the Obama camp (from either of the pro-corporate parties in fact) on this unfortunately given the list of their contributors. Americans have the worst government went it comes to economic protections for workers and consumers in the Western world.

@InfiniTrent:

Who will be the Czar of the all the other Czar's?

Yes, I'd like to see a socialist president appoint a czar. Nice.

@homerjay wants Boston Legal back!:

LOL! Snaps for the appropriate PB quote!

@notlupus:

I think you're thinking of Rasputin. He was a member of Tsar Nicholas's court.

[en.wikipedia.org]

@sebadoh128:
The Czar who is wearing the One Ring, of course.

Seriously, if you want Czars in charge of everything, go to Russia where they belong.

@Triborough: Agreed, up to a point. Rather than creating new positions to report directly to the president, give enough funding to existing agencies like the CPSC, FDA and others so that they can do their job properly. The president already gets more direct-report overload than he/she can handle, anyway.

@vladthepaler: Maybe you should vote for a socialist then. The Socialist Workers Party candidate for President last year was Roger Calero, so you'll have to wait at least another four years to get your wish.

Fighting flamebait with fire since 1996

I second the motion!