The Ant and the Grasshopper

[Decepticon]

Welfare/Subsidy Queen Ants like Michelle Bachmann?

The OP... makes perfect sense, and you libtards come along and prove how damn stupid you all really are.

How exactly did he "make sense"?

Do all poor people call up the media when they don't want to work like it said in his little fantasy?
Want me to keep going?

This isn't a morality tale or a fable or anything else. It's a hack job made to push the buttons of maroons who buy into its lies.


There's no horde of people not working and living the high life. That's a CON myth, told by Reagan and believed by dolts ever since.

Perhaps you wouldn't feel so squeezed by these ne-er do wells that you obsess over had you made a quarter of a million dollars MORE over the last 33 years?

But you embraced the Reagan revolution that made you poorer. So sorry if I doubt your ability an analyze anything.

 

[rightwinger]

Now let's look at the REAL story...

The ants work hard in the withering heat, all summer long
The fat cat ant screams at them that they are lazy and better work harder

At the end of the season, the fat cat ant keeps 90% of what they produce and leaves the other ants to fight over the remaining ten percent
When some of the ants complain that they work so hard and have so little to show for it, the fat cat ant points out one ant who is sickly and can't work as hard as the others...
That is the reason you have so little......he does not work as hard as you and still gets a share!
So the ants turn on the sickly ant and force him from the group. Yet they are still struggling to get by on their meager share
One of the ants is smart and cries out....."The reason we have so little is because the fat cat ant takes 90% of what we produce"
The fat cat ant gets nervous and calls out....."That ant is a SOCIALIST.......he wants a redistribution of wealth!"
The other ants don't really know what a socialist is, but they know it must be bad so they drive the "socialist" ant from the group
Now that all of the ants are afraid to speak out about how little they receive for their labor, the fat cat ant says......"You will now share 5% of the profit, if you don't like it we will get some Chinese ants to do your job"

In the end........they send their jobs to China anyway

The point of the story is the grasshopper is not sickly. The grasshopper is able to work, refuses to work and just wants to be feed and housed without doing anything.

The point of the story is that pointing out the least fortunate in society as the scapegoat for working class struggles is a red herring when you have a small percentage monopolizing the majority of available wealth

 

[Defiant1]

Should a "living wage" include money for flat screens, cell phones, tattoos, piercings, manicures and pedicures?

What the fuck does this mean! Your statement is so fucking stupid it has to be called only that and that only.
With the stupid ass statement why do CEO's need shower curtains that are worth $1million dollars. Or spend $100, 000's of dollars on pets.
You are so dumb.[/QUOTE]


I see you can't answer the question. You have to bring up shower curtains and CEOs.

My point is "living wage" can't be defined from the collective view. It is a personal thing and a person's responsibility to provide for his/her own living.

If it takes 2, 3, or 4 jobs to provide a living, so be it. It isn't an employer's responsibility. Or the government's.

 

[bobcollum]

Basically its all instincts... its in the conservative's DNA to take care of themselves, its in a liberals DNA to take it from others.

Everybody is a geneticist .

 

[boilermaker55]

Should a "living wage" include money for flat screens, cell phones, tattoos, piercings, manicures and pedicures?

What the fuck does this mean! Your statement is so fucking stupid it has to be called only that and that only.
With the stupid ass statement why do CEO's need shower curtains that are worth $1million dollars. Or spend $100, 000's of dollars on pets.
You are so dumb.

I see you can't answer the question. You have to bring up shower curtains and CEOs.

My point is "living wage" can't be defined from the collective view. It is a personal thing and a person's responsibility to provide for his/her own living.

If it takes 2, 3, or 4 jobs to provide a living, so be it. It isn't an employer's responsibility. Or the government's.[/QUOTE]

No, on the contrary, I answered your question with a fine rebuttal you just don't have an argument to counter it.
If they need 2, 3 or more jobs so be it. What a pathetic statement.
Those you wish to suck up too would steal all your money and kick your sorry butt in the street .
just as they have done with millions of others.
keep up the good work carrying water for those types.

 

[JoeB131]

They can always get food stamps from the government so what's the beef?

Wouldn't you rather have them have jobs? I would.

The problem here is not that they can get food stamps, it's that 40% of the people getting food stamps actually have at least one person in the Household with a job that doesn't really pay enough to put food on the table.

Conservatives complain about too much govenrment dependence, and they are right. But then they support economic policies that cause more government dependence. And the rank and file guys convince themselves that Medicare, Social Security and Unemployment are somehow better than WIC, Food Stamps and Section 8 housing.

The best firewall against European style socialism is a well compensated middle class with skin in the game. When I was growing up, they called these folks "Reagan Democrats". Working class folks with good jobs who really liked Reagan's message about personal responsibility, traditional values and so on.

The GOP started losing those people back to the Democrats in 1992, and by 2008, they are completely off the reservation. And nominating Mitt "I Like To Fire People" Romney is just a step in the wrong direction.

 

[JoeB131]

Now let's look at the REAL story...

The ants work hard in the withering heat, all summer long
The fat cat ant screams at them that they are lazy and better work harder

At the end of the season, the fat cat ant keeps 90% of what they produce and leaves the other ants to fight over the remaining ten percent
When some of the ants complain that they work so hard and have so little to show for it, the fat cat ant points out one ant who is sickly and can't work as hard as the others...
That is the reason you have so little......he does not work as hard as you and still gets a share!
So the ants turn on the sickly ant and force him from the group. Yet they are still struggling to get by on their meager share
One of the ants is smart and cries out....."The reason we have so little is because the fat cat ant takes 90% of what we produce"
The fat cat ant gets nervous and calls out....."That ant is a SOCIALIST.......he wants a redistribution of wealth!"
The other ants don't really know what a socialist is, but they know it must be bad so they drive the "socialist" ant from the group
Now that all of the ants are afraid to speak out about how little they receive for their labor, the fat cat ant says......"You will now share 5% of the profit, if you don't like it we will get some Chinese ants to do your job"

In the end........they send their jobs to China anyway

The point of the story is the grasshopper is not sickly. The grasshopper is able to work, refuses to work and just wants to be feed and housed without doing anything.

Exactly. Neither are being paid a wage. if you look at the tribes in South America, you can see they all work, all the men hunt, all the women gather. They are working. Nobody is thinking the tribe owes them anything. Anybody who does not pitch in is soon pitched out of the tribe. Same thing with the Amish.

Anybody who has ever owned an ant farm can see how incredibly industrious they are. Same with honey bees. No wage is being paid. Everybody pitches in. No slackers.

Another comparison might be the story of the little red hen who gathers the wheat, turns it into flour, makes the bread, bakes it, and at every turn she asks all the others if they will help. No none of them would help do anything. But when she got the bread all baked, then they stepped up and wanted to eat it.

There is always, always going to be somebody with a bigger house, bigger car, more clothes, etc. so what? Start your own business, get training to get a better job. And by the same token you will find people with less, worse health, etc. That's life. Life's not fair. Deal with it. Maybe you could appeal to the rich Hollwood people to fork over their money, but good luck with that. They are notoriously selfish and shallow.

The people who repeat this story know absolutely nothing about entomology or the lifestyle of Ants or Grasshoppers.

Let's take Grasshoppers. Grasshoppers have a simple lifestyle. They grow up from a little grasshopper, they continue eating until they reach maturity, they mate, they lay their eggs underground, and they die. In warmer climates, the next generation of grasshoppers hatches immediately and repeats the cycle. IN colder ones, the eggs stay good for the winter.

Ants, on the other hand, don't have it quite as good. Effectively, they all slave away continuously for the good of the hive, but your average worker ant has a pretty short life-cycle. During the life cycle of that "Lazy" grasshopper, you've probably had several generations of worker ants who have worked themselves to death for the good of the hive. That is if they haven't been picked off by Spiders or Ardvarks or other creatures that eat ants.

It might be tempting to say the Queen Ant is a Capitalist in that she lives longer and enjoys the benefits of the hives labor, but really, she's a glorified sex slave, laying eggs for nearly her entire life.

Oh, to really, really annoy all you "Consevatives" who blurt "Ditto Rush"... Ants are the ultimate Femi-Nazis. The boy-ants only live long enough to mate with new queens during the mating season at the beginning of the year. Then they are all turned out of the hive and they starve to death because they don't have anyone to feed them. The queens and all the worker ants are female. Probalby would break out the Indigo Girl Albums and some scented candles...

 

[Douger]

In the end........they send their jobs to China anyway

But murka doesn't pay it's bills, China removes them from the map, and all that survives is the cockroaches.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Ants and grasshoppers? It amazes that the conservative mind finds this parable instructiive of human behavior without a deeper look into the life of an ant colony. To take a scientists look at an ant colony one might draw a very precise comparison between that and the former Soviet Union or China. But in doing so one risks being called an elitist - those who make judgments on emotion and accept anything which supports their biases and rejects anything which makes them think is a more accurate look at the mind of the hoi polloi conservatives of this new century.

 

[Sallow]

Someone had this in their tagline:

A Liberal, a CEO and a Conservative walk in to a room with 10 cookies on the plate. The CEO grabs 9 cookies and tells the Conservative, "That Liberal wants your cookie!".

 

[Sallow]

I see you can't answer the question. You have to bring up shower curtains and CEOs.

My point is "living wage" can't be defined from the collective view. It is a personal thing and a person's responsibility to provide for his/her own living.

If it takes 2, 3, or 4 jobs to provide a living, so be it. It isn't an employer's responsibility. Or the government's.

This is what I love about you guys. No idea how we came to the place we are..

It wasn't labor that wanted government to intercede in disputes..it was management.

They were deathly afraid of being killed by disgruntled workers.

 

[G.T.]

In the end........they send their jobs to China anyway

But murka doesn't pay it's bills, China removes them from the map, and all that survives is the cockroaches.

thats not gunna happen

 

[naturegirl]

I think of Ellis Island and the immigrants (my ancestors) that came over here for the American Dream. They worked their butts off, bought houses and provided a good living for their families. If they needed to work two or even three jobs they did. They didn't come here to live off the government. Good bosses appreciate hard workers and they are paid respectively.

I know many Italian and Irish immigrant families that are living quite comfortably and did so all by themselves. Not by beating up their fellow man because he made more than they did.

This entitlement generation makes me sick to my stomach.

The little red hen is a perfect example of what's going on today, no one wants to help but everyone wants to reap the rewards. I've asked this before and I'll ask again............why is it easier and more comfortable to earn 0 dollars than it is to work to make it. Pride and diligence are still important to some, albeit the number is growing smaller with each government hand out.

 

[bugs]

I think of Ellis Island and the immigrants (my ancestors) that came over here for the American Dream. They worked their butts off, bought houses and provided a good living for their families. If they needed to work two or even three jobs they did. They didn't come here to live off the government. Good bosses appreciate hard workers and they are paid respectively.

I know many Italian and Irish immigrant families that are living quite comfortably and did so all by themselves. Not by beating up their fellow man because he made more than they did.

This entitlement generation makes me sick to my stomach.

The little red hen is a perfect example of what's going on today, no one wants to help but everyone wants to reap the rewards. I've asked this before and I'll ask again............why is it easier and more comfortable to earn 0 dollars than it is to work to make it. Pride and diligence are still important to some, albeit the number is growing smaller with each government hand out.

Wow.. Best Post i have Read here at USMB!

 

[Wry Catcher]

I think of Ellis Island and the immigrants (my ancestors) that came over here for the American Dream. They worked their butts off, bought houses and provided a good living for their families. If they needed to work two or even three jobs they did. They didn't come here to live off the government. Good bosses appreciate hard workers and they are paid respectively.

I know many Italian and Irish immigrant families that are living quite comfortably and did so all by themselves. Not by beating up their fellow man because he made more than they did.

This entitlement generation makes me sick to my stomach.

The little red hen is a perfect example of what's going on today, no one wants to help but everyone wants to reap the rewards. I've asked this before and I'll ask again............why is it easier and more comfortable to earn 0 dollars than it is to work to make it. Pride and diligence are still important to some, albeit the number is growing smaller with each government hand out.

The Irish and the Italians brought with them organized crime too. Both ethnic groups experienced the bigotry and felt the wrath of the generations which preceded them to our shores. Yes many worked hard but hardly earned good wages, and kind bosses is a fantasy. When workers began to demand better working conditions and higher wages the 'kind' bosses brought in thugs to beat up their fellow man.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Today too many Americans hold only contempt for immigrants and workers - conservatives never change.

 

[G.T.]

I think of Ellis Island and the immigrants (my ancestors) that came over here for the American Dream. They worked their butts off, bought houses and provided a good living for their families. If they needed to work two or even three jobs they did. They didn't come here to live off the government. Good bosses appreciate hard workers and they are paid respectively.

Back then, only Men worked. It's much harder now on the Nuclear family, now both Mom and Dad work and barely have time to raise their own Children. Corporatocracy. It's sad, really. Everything is geared more towards work and marketing, less towards Family and Happiness. America is one of the least happy (quality of life) Citizenries of advanced Countries.

I know many Italian and Irish immigrant families that are living quite comfortably and did so all by themselves. Not by beating up their fellow man because he made more than they did.

This entitlement generation makes me sick to my stomach.

It's grossly over-stated. First of all, we have like 84% employment. Of the other 16%, only a percentage of THAT is taking gross advantage. So you're allowing news-hype to distort reality, and HARD NUMBERS. You can have your own set of hysteria, but not your own set of facts. For every retard your irrelevant newscast shows on TV who's looking for a hand-out, they could show 100, 000 hard workers. And newsflash - not all of them 84% employed are Republicans.

The little red hen is a perfect example of what's going on today, no one wants to help but everyone wants to reap the rewards. I've asked this before and I'll ask again............why is it easier and more comfortable to earn 0 dollars than it is to work to make it. Pride and diligence are still important to some, albeit the number is growing smaller with each government hand out.

^ hysteria with no hard data.



I'm sorry to say, but you're very susceptible to propoganda and sensationalism.

 

[JoeB131]

I think of Ellis Island and the immigrants (my ancestors) that came over here for the American Dream. They worked their butts off, bought houses and provided a good living for their families. If they needed to work two or even three jobs they did. They didn't come here to live off the government. Good bosses appreciate hard workers and they are paid respectively.

I know many Italian and Irish immigrant families that are living quite comfortably and did so all by themselves. Not by beating up their fellow man because he made more than they did.

This entitlement generation makes me sick to my stomach.

The little red hen is a perfect example of what's going on today, no one wants to help but everyone wants to reap the rewards. I've asked this before and I'll ask again............why is it easier and more comfortable to earn 0 dollars than it is to work to make it. Pride and diligence are still important to some, albeit the number is growing smaller with each government hand out.

I think you need to read up on the Labor Movement and how your Italian and Irish forebears really got the American dream. They did indeed work their butts off, but they also fought for fair wages, better working conditions, and occassionally resorted to violence when the Plutocrats didn't give it to them.

The mentality of the LIberal who thinks that we should all go on welfare is bad, but so is the Republican mentality that we should all work ourselves into early graves so that Mitt Romney can buy another mansion.

Good bosses appreciate hard workers and they are paid respectively.

Horseshit. There are very few good bosses. Most bosses will go ahead and cheat you at every oppurtunity, because that's what they taught them at business school. And there's always the threat we can get a Chinese to do your job for less.

We've all worked for one.

 

[bugs]

I think of Ellis Island and the immigrants (my ancestors) that came over here for the American Dream. They worked their butts off, bought houses and provided a good living for their families. If they needed to work two or even three jobs they did. They didn't come here to live off the government. Good bosses appreciate hard workers and they are paid respectively.

I know many Italian and Irish immigrant families that are living quite comfortably and did so all by themselves. Not by beating up their fellow man because he made more than they did.

This entitlement generation makes me sick to my stomach.

The little red hen is a perfect example of what's going on today, no one wants to help but everyone wants to reap the rewards. I've asked this before and I'll ask again............why is it easier and more comfortable to earn 0 dollars than it is to work to make it. Pride and diligence are still important to some, albeit the number is growing smaller with each government hand out.

I think you need to read up on the Labor Movement and how your Italian and Irish forebears really got the American dream. They did indeed work their butts off, but they also fought for fair wages, better working conditions, and occassionally resorted to violence when the Plutocrats didn't give it to them.

The mentality of the LIberal who thinks that we should all go on welfare is bad, but so is the Republican mentality that we should all work ourselves into early graves so that Mitt Romney can buy another mansion.

Good bosses appreciate hard workers and they are paid respectively.

Horseshit. There are very few good bosses. Most bosses will go ahead and cheat you at every oppurtunity, because that's what they taught them at business school. And there's always the threat we can get a Chinese to do your job for less.

We've all worked for one.

that is what Shitty bosses do.. and i have Quit on every single one of them!

 

[naturegirl]

Back then, only Men worked. It's much harder now on the Nuclear family, now both Mom and Dad work and barely have time to raise their own Children. Corporatocracy. It's sad, really. Everything is geared more towards work and marketing, less towards Family and Happiness. America is one of the least happy (quality of life) Citizenries of advanced Countries.

Bullsh*t, women cleaned houses, laundered and ironed clothes, took in sewing, they helped just like they do now for much less money. Families included Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts and Uncles, nieces and nephews. The whole family worked together and took care of each other. Individuals are too self serving to worry about Grandma and Grandpa today, they are on their own with their measly SS.

It's grossly over-stated. First of all, we have like 84% employment. Of the other 16%, only a percentage of THAT is taking gross advantage. So you're allowing news-hype to distort reality, and HARD NUMBERS. You can have your own set of hysteria, but not your own set of facts. For every retard your irrelevant newscast shows on TV who's looking for a hand-out, they could show 100, 000 hard workers. And newsflash - not all of them 84% employed are Republicans.

More BS, 16% not working doesn't equate to 84% that are. I know you are smarter than that. Aren't you?

^ hysteria with no hard data.

Yea, you smell the bread and your mouth waters..........you deserve it, you are entitled to it because you want it, not the work that goes into it. And the little red hen is a greedy selfish b*tch because she won't share.

I'm sorry to say, but you're very susceptible to propoganda and sensationalism.

And you are in total denial of reality.

 

[G.T.]

Hysteria. No hard data, etc. etc.

Yes, people are selfish these days.

Why?

Corporatocracy and over-marketing. A saturation of Commericalized media.