Who is Steve Consilvio?
My wife and I
moved to Auburn in 1986. Since then we have had three
children; one is in college, and two are in Auburn
Public Schools. I have been self-employed since 1987 as
the owner of Squeegee Graphics. I have a
degree in History from Syracuse University. I am
registered Democratic, and am 50 years old.
I am originally from Watertown, which coincidentally
is where the first settlers of Auburn were from, too.
I would appreciate your vote on September 16th on the
Democratic ballot. (I have a challenger.) And please
vote again in the General Election on November
4th.
Why is Steve running for State Representative?
Only a few
thousand people decide the rules for the world, and I
believe if I can get into the room at any level where
decisions are made, I can effect the thinking on
certain issues and the quality of the decisions being
made. Thomas Paine passed a law as an Assembly-man that
gradually abolished slavery in Pennsylvania. Great
things can come from low offices. I believe my study of
history, economics, religion, and my experience in
business, makes me qualified for this position. I have
specific ideas on how we can reform our economy and tax
policies, and why past attempts have failed. Change on
the scale I envision will not be easy, but it is
necessary. I am asking for the opportunity to present
my case to those who are making the decisions.
I did not run for a local position because most of
the decisions that the local towns make are
pre-determined by the State. We need to change things
at the State level for things to improve at the local
level.
I can only get in the room with your vote, so please
vote for me on September 16th on the Democratic
ballot and again on November 4th.
What does "TAX your Imagination!" mean?
Before society
can improve, there must be a change in behaviors.
Before behaviors can change, there must be a change in
thinking. It is ideas that rule the world, not men.
Good ideas work well in promoting peace and prosperity,
bad ideas work poorly. By stretching our imaginations
we discover new ideas, new friends and new ways of
doing things. It all begins with you and your
willingness to imagine a better future and acting upon
it. A vote for me is only the start. We all contribute
to the things that are wrong, and it will take all of
us to make things better.
It is the lowest form of government that physically
and financially punishes its citizens. While some
people think they can isolate themselves from the
ill-effects in greater society, it is a simple truth
that we are only as strong as our weakest neighbor,
just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest
link. We need to be lifting each other up, instead of
tearing each other down.
Please Vote for me on September 16th on the
Democratic ballot and again on November 4th.
Does a penny compounded 50 times really equal $5
Trillion?
Yes, and a
piece of paper folded 50 times would be thick enough to
reach the Sun. Folded once more, and it would reach to
the Sun and back.
It is hard to imagine that a penny and a small number
like 50 could have such a huge consequence, but it
does explain why we have trillions of dollars of debt
and increasingly rapid inflation. The Louisiana
Purchase cost as much as the recently built Auburn
High School. How could a single building cost the
same as half a continent? We are living in a
mathematical absurdity, and it will not stop without
the conscious effort to stop it.
It does not have to be like this. Vote for me on
September 16th on the Democratic ballot and again on
November 4th.
What is the Democracy Wheel of Confusion?
If you listen
carefully to what most politicians are saying, their
"reforms" are all based on taxing more or taxing less,
or by increasing spending or cutting spending (usually
all four simultaneously.) We have beat this dead horse
for hundreds of years. It is never going to get up and
gallop. There has to be a better explanation of what is
wrong in the economy, and a better strategy.
The best definition of stupid is doing the same thing
repeatedly and expecting different results.
Break with the status quo, and vote for me on
September 16th on the Democratic ballot, and again on
November 4th. :-)
Why is the National Debt important in a State race?
The National
Debt is the nine trillion pound elephant in the room
that everybody wants to avoid talking about.
Unfortunately, we really need to talk about it,
understand how and why it developed, and begin to make
the changes to resolve our predicament. Ben Franklin's
experiment in paper money is a dismal failure.
The ability to create a limitless amount of money has
also created a limitless amount of debt and
inflation. This is not a random coincidence, but a
direct result of cause and effect.
Young people are graduating college with a debt load
that two generations ago would have been the size of
a mortgage. At the same time, young children are
investing in the UPlan. This situation is absurd. If
money is just a piece of paper, then why is there
such an imbalance, and why are children being taught
to worry about money at such a young age?
From cradle to grave people are constantly consumed
with the worry about money. This is not normal, and
none of the prevailing economic theories can explain
why this is occurring. We have been indoctrinated and
brain-washed. In contrast, my economic theories
explain everything that occurs. If we continue on
this course things can only get worse. Fortunately,
we can reverse course at any point.
Don't let things continue to get worse. Vote for me
on September 16th on the Democratic ballot, and again
on November 4th.
What do you mean that the economy is a zero-sum
game?
A zero-sum game
refers to the idea that there is a fixed amount of a
resource, and whatever one person takes for themselves
is automatically lost by another.
However, I am not referring to physical goods, but
rather to our accounting numbers. Mathematically, the
way we exchange goods "buy low-sell high" is a
zero-sum game. Every transaction has a winner and a
loser.
People tend to think of a zero-sum game as themselves
against the world, but the numbers we use are
constantly growing. It is a zero-sum relationship,
but with an important difference. Prices have no
growth limit, even if the amount of money at any one
moment is limited. The money we gain when we sell is
lost when we buy from someone else. We constantly
shift our role from predator to prey and back again.
Our profit is somebody else's expense, their profit
is our expense. We are trading goods, but our
accounting values are creating inflation.
Whether profits created the need for taxes or taxes
created the need for profits is a "which came first,
the chicken on the egg?" type of question. We have
both and need to deal with both. In general,
conservatives are pro-profits and liberals are
pro-taxes. Both are wrong. Where money comes from is
as important as where it goes.
Rather than having a symbiotic trade relationship, we
have institutionalized destructive relationships
through taxes and profits. The law requires you to
pay taxes as well as be fiduciarily aggressive. It
demands numerical conflict. The law is a mathematical
farce.
An economy with less taxes and less profits is
possible. It is what is called a Pricing Equilibrium.
Every renaissance has coincided with a pricing
equilibrium. Why? Because the rat race finally ends,
and people are free to explore more worthy pursuits
than The Money Chase.
A better world is possible. Please Vote for me on
September 16th on the Democratic ballot and again on
November 4th.
What is The Interest Mechanism?
The Rule of 72
calculates the amount of time required to double the
original loan/investment amount based on the interest
rate. The higher the interest rate, the quicker the
value doubles.
Within the context of the economy, this mathematical
phenomenon needs a release, which occurs in the form
of price inflation and National Debt. One man's
profit becomes another man's debt. (The creditor vs
debtor conflict.) Debt and inflation drive the demand
for bigger profits and bigger wages. (The owner vs
the worker conflict.) Productivity gains and higher
selling prices are the survival responses of those
who produce goods. (The Cost of Living increases with
productivity gains.) Debt and increasing overhead
drives sales and marketing at a frantic pace. Any
action that creates a profit can be justified. (It
takes money to make money, or slash costs - assume
more debt or cut jobs.) The results become either a
big success or a big failure. Moral and environmental
consequences of economic activity become secondary
when the choice is survive or perish.
Those who manage to accumulate a surplus then invest
(loan with compound interest) in response to
inflation, thus driving the inflationary pressures
they are trying to escape. The existence of a surplus
creates the illusion of excessive wealth. (The rich
vs poor conflict.) These self-fueling cycles can be
described as The Interest Mechanism.
Interest makes products cost more while making the
money itself worth less. Taxes and profits also do
the same thing, since they are similarly based on
percentages.
It's a crazy system we have, but I finally figured it
out. It will never work, which is why we need to
change it. Please Vote for me on September 16th on
the Democratic ballot and again on November
4th.
How does taxation cause inflation?
Since money is
created by the government, the only way that people can
get money is for the government to have first spent it.
Unfortunately, the more the government spends, the more
it must tax the people, too. It sets off a vicious
circle.
Another way to look at is the government owns the
only chicken, yet the people are expected to pay
taxes with eggs. This is impossible. The people can
only pay with eggs that the government first
distributed. As a result of this illogical system,
the government is always in debt, so it is constantly
taxing more, which just makes the problem worse.
Money should exist to allow citizens to trade with
one another more easily, but instead money exists to
serve the government, which has the effect that money
serves no one.
The more the government taxes, the more profits
people need to be able to pay the government. Profits
is the root cause of inflation. Inflation can occur
without taxation, but is unavoidable with taxation.
Where money comes from is as important as where it
goes.
The first step in solving a problem is admitting that
it exists. Please vote for me on the Democratic
ballot on September 16, and again on November
4.
How is inflation created, and why does it endure?
While we
consume goods daily, the accounting value we assign to
goods endures forever. This phenomenon is greatly
effected by the profit margins used. Let’s use an apple
as an example. The farmer picks the apple for free, and
sells it to a wholesaler for five cents. The wholesaler
then sells it to a distributor for ten cents. The
distributor sells it to the supermarket for twenty
cents. The supermarket sells it to the canteen truck
for forty cents. The canteen truck sells it to you for
eighty cents. Everyone has made 100% profit, but the
consumer has an eighty cents apple. For him to be able
to pay eighty cents, he has to profit eighty cents
selling another good of his to somebody else.
Now let’s pick the same apple, and use different
math, 50% instead of 100%. A farmer picks an apple
for free and sells it to the wholesaler for one cent.
The wholesaler sells it to a distributor for 1.5
cents. The wholesaler sells it to the supermarket for
2.25 cents. The supermarket sells it to the canteen
truck for 3.38 cents. The canteen truck sells it to
you for five cents.
In both cases the apple moved from point A to point
Z, but the final cost of the apple was dramatically
different. In the first example, a 100% profit margin
was used; in the second example, a 50% margin was
used. The final cost difference was five cents to
eighty cents, a difference of 16 times more
expensive. Had a smaller profit margin been used, the
difference would be even greater.
In the examples I used, the starting price was
different, too, but what would happen if the starting
price were the same five cents? A five cent apple
marked up 50% four times would have cost 25 cents.
Still significantly less than the 80 cents, even
though the farmer was paid the same price for his
apple, but five times greater than starting at one
cent (5c to 25c.)
It is the middle-man merchant and his profit margins
that really controls the marketplace, not the
original producer, or the government, and certainly
not the consumer. The more steps a product has
between the producer and consumer, the more it will
cost, which is why big vertical companies seem to
have a pricing advantage over small companies.
A better run economy is
possible. Please Vote for me on September 16th on the
Democratic ballot and again on November 4th.
Why should I vote for Steve Consilvio?
It is
impossible to fix a problem with the wrong strategy,
and treating symptoms will never be a cure for the
underlying disease. While we all share the same goals
of a peaceful and prosperous society, we need to
recognize that "buy low-sell high" can only create a
society of winners and losers. Our big problems have a
place where they started, and by returning to the
source, we can make adjustments that will give us the
effect we desire.
I believe these words are true, and that they only
have meaning if we act upon them:
We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
— That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form
of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
-The Declaration of Independence
We are in a time of crisis. We are at war and turning
our free nation into a police state. The lenders and
borrowers are both broke. Businesses are failing. We
are polluting ourselves to death. We are evicting our
neighbors from their homes to satisfy the demands of
a ridiculous money chase. We are, unfortunately,
where many other societies have found themselves.
There is nothing unique about our predicament, and
the old saying is true: Those who fail to understand
history are doomed to repeat it.
It took me a long time to finally come to understand
why everything is so screwed up, and my role as a
merchant in the problem. In fact, we are all part of
the problem and we are all part of the solution.
While the ideas I am discussing are big and
significant, we will be okay if we make changes.
Don't be afraid. Be happy and free, instead.
If you want a government that is competent,
compassionate and cooperative, then now is the time
to act. Please vote for me in the Democratic primary
of September 16, and in the General Election on
November 4.
What is the unreasonable man?
The reasonable
man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in adapting the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -George
Bernard Shaw
Send an unreasonable man to Boston, and lets see what
happens.