The ant and the grasshopper
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The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself
MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long , building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant 's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share..
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer..
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote
The problem is the grasshoppers are the offspring of the ants from the early 1900s and are just pissing away their money, hard work and reputations(Hiltons, Kardashians, etc).
This country changes its political mind every 1.5 minutes depending on how people feel that day.
Everyone hated George Bush in his last 2-3 years, so Obama comes in and makes some changes, and now everyone think Obama is an idiot. What a thankless job(salary isn’t real good either, considering). It’s like being on the school board in a local community, where parents are outraged if sports are cancelled, or kids are housed in trailer, or if there is a referedum… BUT don’t you dare try to raise their property taxes… some people just don’t get it.
My mom who lives in a small suburb(29,000) about an hour outside of a Top 10 city. Sent me a newspaper clipping that she thought I would enjoy… The town had just added a movie theater,home depot, target, meijer and some other stores… and a Chili’s. The paper was asking residents how they felt about the new developments, and a lady wrote in “I love chili’s but i don’t understand why the other stuff had to be built”… AS IF THEY WOULD BUILD THE CHILI’S IF THE OTHER STUFF WASN"T THERE!!!
My favorite line ever " A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky human beings and you know it. Humans for the most part don’t have a clue. Don’t want one either. They’re happy. They think they’ve got a pretty good bead on things."
That sums up why no one is every happy with politics…
I get big picture, but the needs of ants change over time. The ants of yesterday care more about their health than they did 20 years ago.
Also the “people” who think Obama is doing terrible or the same people who thought Bush was doing terrible…The media… Political points is good for business. Not only for senators but also for media.
I can’t think of anything Obama/Bush/Clinton/US President has done that has greatly affected my life or business.
Now if he votes in the employee/bd relationship this magazine keeps talking about, then I will have an issue.
Better to make the ant grasshopper point now, than after he gets passage of the emp;oyee issue.
The old slippery slope
I can’t think of anything Obama/Bush/Clinton/US President has done that has greatly affected my life or business.
Wow. Just wow.You're joking right?So you are telling me they have done things that directly touched you??
I like the story, and it has it’s truths, but I agree with chief. Nothing much has affected my business. He is right about the media bashing Bush and Clinton and Obama. Hell, the guy has only been in office 8 months! I told my Dad the other day (ultraconservative), that now that he’s in office, he finds that it’s a little difficult to do the things he promised on the campaign trail. That you do certain things (lie) to get elected. Every politician does it. Presidents more so, because when they become president, they have a lot more to deal with.
Let's start with the recession. Economic policy may have had something to do with it.No seriously…
Recessions are part of the economic cycle.
Why did the last recession start? The one before that? Different catalysts each time.
[quote=chief123]No seriously…
Let’s start with the recession. Economic policy may have had something to do with it.[/quote]
I think there was a famous economist that I studied about back in college that compared economist to astrologers.
So under your logic, Obama started the recession, then under the same logic Clinton was brilliant because how the economy did under him. I tend to think they didn’t have a whole lot to do with it. Clinton got lucky and was president during the internet boom, while Obama got elected during the housing collapse.
I think the main problem with politics is that they take credit for the good stuff(some of which they didn’t have anything to do with) and blame the bad stuff on the other guy… Because that is how you get re-elected…
[quote=chief123]No seriously…
Let’s start with the recession. Economic policy may have had something to do with it.[/quote]
Secondly the recession hasn’t really affected me that much, my income is similar to last year, my wife’s income is up, so for us everything remains the same.
[quote=Jebediah] [quote=chief123]No seriously…
Let’s start with the recession. Economic policy may have had something to do with it.[/quote]
I think there was a famous economist that I studied about back in college that compared economist to astrologers.
So under your logic, Obama started the recession, then under the same logic Clinton was brilliant because how the economy did under him. I tend to think they didn’t have a whole lot to do with it. Clinton got lucky and was president during the internet boom, while Obama got elected during the housing collapse.
I think the main problem with politics is that they take credit for the good stuff(some of which they didn’t have anything to do with) and blame the bad stuff on the other guy… Because that is how you get re-elected…
[/quote]
Clinton actually came in during recovery. The last recession (before this one) started on Clinton’s watch. The one before that started on Bush 41’s watch. This particular one started on Dubya’s watch. It’s the economic cycle. Not politics.
[quote=chief123] [quote=Jebediah] [quote=chief123]No seriously…[/quote]
Let's start with the recession. Economic policy may have had something to do with it.[/quote]
I think there was a famous economist that I studied about back in college that compared economist to astrologers.
So under your logic, Obama started the recession, then under the same logic Clinton was brilliant because how the economy did under him. I tend to think they didn't have a whole lot to do with it. Clinton got lucky and was president during the internet boom, while Obama got elected during the housing collapse.
I think the main problem with politics is that they take credit for the good stuff(some of which they didn't have anything to do with) and blame the bad stuff on the other guy... Because that is how you get re-elected..
[/quote] Let me quote you: I can't think of anything Obama/Bush/Clinton/US President has done that has greatly affected my life or business.
I was not stating which president is at fault the current economic downturn, I was simply stating that economic policies have an effect. If we had not had the current market downturn, would your revenues be even higher? Most likely, unless you are going to claim that you have not lost a single client due to market action or that you do not have a single client that has lost money. Recessions are part of the economic cycle, caused by excesses that are shaken out. Many of the excesses are enhanced by government policy, i.e. the CRA, repeal of Glass-Stegal, etc. etc. To say my income is the same this year as last doesn't mean that the policies of this or previous administrations has not affected your life.