And The Moral Of The Story Is...

[Mr. Peepers]

No one is singing and dancing and playing all summer unless they are already independently wealthy. Some of the richest people in this country sing and dance and throw balls around for a living. It sounds like you're getting a poor person mixed up with a celebrity. They're not the same, trust me.

What if the grasshopper is holding down 3 menial jobs to make ends meet with 2 kids and no health insurance because that's all he can get? Maybe he should go and get his MBA, ritght? Wait, there are no MBA jobs anymore - or entry level - or intermediate level - all gone. Oh well...Does that sound like singing and dancing and PLAYING to you? Yep, that's one lazy bug. What reality are you living in???

[Yep like all the banks pushing NINJA home loans blaming the gummit, they made me do it. Please bail me out. /QUOTE]

You left out the mention that Wall Street was screaming, crying, begging, pleading and paying off congress for relaxed lending requirements and to look the other way so that they could get more of their exotic instruments out there to the public so that they could make even more money. Do you realize that they were making 7 and sometimes 10x returns on these rediculous loans? That was my money and your money. And we lost dearly, thanks to lots of Mr. Ants.

Nice justification for your pro-selfish idealism. A society is judged by how they treat the least among them. You want to live in a sink or swim society? Sarah Palin can point you to where Russia is. Have a good looksee at how the majority of the citizens are living over there.

You got this off of a right wing blog today, didn't you. Amazing. They managed to fit almost all the official "talking points" into a satirical fable. And I thought neocons were not creative...

I truly hope we never become the type of society that you desire. Not that you could call it a "society". A third world country, maybe... Oligarchy?

 

[Oldandtired]

Still ignoring the NINJA loan thing USCitizen.
Why?
Hate to admit you were wrong? Hate to admit you were fooled?

 

[Oldandtired]

No one is singing and dancing and playing all summer unless they are already independently wealthy. Some of the richest people in this country sing and dance and throw balls around for a living. It sounds like you're getting a poor person mixed up with a celebrity. They're not the same, trust me.

What if the grasshopper is holding down 3 menial jobs to make ends meet with 2 kids and no health insurance because that's all he can get? Maybe he should go and get his MBA, ritght? Wait, there are no MBA jobs anymore - or entry level - or intermediate level - all gone. Oh well...Does that sound like singing and dancing and PLAYING to you? Yep, that's one lazy bug. What reality are you living in???

[Yep like all the banks pushing NINJA home loans blaming the gummit, they made me do it. Please bail me out. /QUOTE]

You left out the mention that Wall Street was screaming, crying, begging, pleading and paying off congress for relaxed lending requirements and to look the other way so that they could get more of their exotic instruments out there to the public so that they could make even more money. Do you realize that they were making 7 and sometimes 10x returns on these rediculous loans? That was my money and your money. And we lost dearly, thanks to lots of Mr. Ants.

Nice justification for your pro-selfish idealism. A society is judged by how they treat the least among them. You want to live in a sink or swim society? Sarah Palin can point you to where Russia is. Have a good looksee at how the majority of the citizens are living over there.

You got this off of a right wing blog today, didn't you. Amazing. They managed to fit almost all the official "talking points" into a satirical fable. And I thought neocons were not creative...

I truly hope we never become the type of society that you desire. Not that you could call it a "society". A third world country, maybe... Oligarchy?

Yes...it is sad that no one...ever...in the history of this country...was able to acheive great things when not coming from a family of money.

When are you guys going to get it. This is a free country of decisions. Make good decisions and you will not be forced to work 3 menial jobs with 2 kids and no health insurance.
Make bad decisions and you very well may have to.
But the decisions are yours.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

know...I now...USCitizen...

The truth of the NUINJA loans left you speechless.

By the way...it is the EA+XACT truth.

And why would any lender offer this type of loan to ANYONE? Why would the lender tell a person that they qualify? Why would a lender ever, EVER honor a loan like this? You can blame the homeowners (and some were dishonest) all you want, but all goes back to Wall Street and the lenders. In a word, pure GREED. You can't offer someone something that doesn't exist.

 

[Big Black Dog]

This has been floating around in the e-mail for quite a while now. I've seen it pretty often. I still think it's very funny but it's beginning to get a little old news... It needs a little bit of a twist to it. Maybe the grasshopper could turn out to be "an insider" bent on destroying America...

 

[Oldandtired]

know...I now...USCitizen...

The truth of the NUINJA loans left you speechless.

By the way...it is the EA+XACT truth.

And why would any lender offer this type of loan to ANYONE? Why would the lender tell a person that they qualify? Why would a lender ever, EVER honor a loan like this? You can blame the homeowners (and some were dishonest) all you want, but all goes back to Wall Street and the lenders. In a word, pure GREED. You can't offer someone something that doesn't exist.

The lenders were stupid. I agree. That is why I was against the bailouts.
But they are not to blame for the plight of those that lost their homes as they were not able to afford the loan they lied to get.
Would youjblame Sony for a man that has no income but spent the little money he had on a new TV...and then starved to death?

 

[rightwinger]

Modern Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The fat cat ant sits back and allows all the worker ants to toil away gathering supplies

When winter comes, the fat cat ant takes 90% of the supplies and lets the worker ants fight over the remaining 10%

To keep the worker ants from turning on him, the fat cat ant points out a sick ant and asks "why does the sick ant get as many supplies as the ants who are working?"

The worker ants turn on the sick ant drive him from the colony

The remaining worker ants starve over their meager 10% of suppies and look for another worker ant to turn on.

The fat cat ant hoards his 90% of the supplies and complains that the worker ants are lazy


The moral of the story?

Be careful who you vote for in 2010

 

[Mr. Peepers]

When are you guys going to get it. This is a free country of decisions. Make good decisions and you will not be forced to work 3 menial jobs with 2 kids and no health insurance.
Make bad decisions and you very well may have to.
But the decisions are yours.

I am so sick of hearing this BS. Yeah, tell that to the 200K+ people in the financial sector here that lost their jobs due to this ponzi scheme. Most can't find a job now making over $10 an hour - it's an emplpyer's wet dream right now. Like I said in an earlier post. Most people have to take what they can get - we have people who were making six figures working at Starbucks and being bank tellers. I would bet that this country has lost 10+ million of jobs in the past decade. I find it interesting that NO ONE has kept track.

 

[Oldandtired]

Modern Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The fat cat ant sits back and allows all the worker ants to toil away gathering supplies

When winter comes, the fat cat ant takes 90% of the supplies and lets the worker ants fight over the remaining 10%

To keep the worker ants from turning on him, the fat cat ant points out a sick ant and asks "why does the sick ant get as many suppies as the ants who are working?"

The worker ants turn on the sick ant drive him from the colony

The remaining worker ants starve over their meager 10% of suppies and look for another worker ant to turn on.

The fat cat ant hoards his 90% of the supplies and complains that the worker ants are lazy


The moral of the story?

Be careful who you vote for in 2010

of the thousands upon thousands of small businesses out there.....exactly how many of those "fat cat" ants actually sit back and let others toil away?

Can you name one?

You obviously have never owned a company. I have..and I do. What were you doing at 5AM this morning while I was running payroll?

What were you dong last night at 8PM as I was reviewing this quarters projections?

Sure...I get to sit around today doing very little as business is slow right now....but when business is normal, I put in 12 hour days.

 

[Oldandtired]

When are you guys going to get it. This is a free country of decisions. Make good decisions and you will not be forced to work 3 menial jobs with 2 kids and no health insurance.
Make bad decisions and you very well may have to.
But the decisions are yours.

I am so sick of hearing this BS. Yeah, tell that to the 200K+ people in the financial sector here that lost their jobs due to this ponzi scheme. Most can't find a job now making over $10 an hour - it's an emplpyer's wet dream right now. Like I said in an earlier post. Most people have to take what they can get - we have people who were making six figures working at Starbucks and being bank tellers. I would bet that this country has lost 10+ million of jobs in the past decade. I find it interesting that NO ONE has kept track.

It was their choice to work for someone and not start their own. They chose the comfort of having the running the business as someone elses headache. ANd so they were beholden to the business decisions fo their employer...good or bad.

It is a country of choices.

I chose to start my own business.

So did my son I am proud to say.

 

[noose4]

Are those who just play the market and do not actually produce any product Ants or Grasshoppers?

You are aware, of course, that both the ant and the grasshopper are permitted to play the market.
No?

not if the ant or grasshopper works 2 jobs just to pay the bills.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

Would youjblame Sony for a man that has no income but spent the little money he had on a new TV...and then starved to death?

Give me a break. No one who was starving to death would ever spend their last dollar on a TV. Do you even know anyone who is considered working poor? Obviously not. Your view is so wrong, I don't even know where to begin. I grew up this way due to divorce and a father who refused to pay child support, and trust me, a new TV was the last thing on my mother's mind. She successfully raised three kids on a secretary's salary. I don't know to this day how she did it. You insult every person who works hard in this country to the best of their ability regardless of the hand that was dealt them. You know, the very people who make that CEO rich enough for the big, warm house and gourmet food.

 

[noose4]

OLD 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 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 and the rain 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 he is 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.” Then Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.

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 and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

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 ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood..

The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.

There is No Morality apart from the Collective Comrade. It is what it is for as long as we decide, how, when, where, why, and that is subject to change without warning. Have a nice day! Don't make me repeat myself now, I might report you to the Party.

The ants are the collective, they are like communists, they all work in the interest of the ant colony not the individual.

 

[noose4]

What have we become?

Not the America we used to be, that's for sure, all at the hands of our "law makers."

and what was that America? we have had government programs (thankfully) since the 1930's

 

[Intense]

OLD 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 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 and the rain 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 he is 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.” Then Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.

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 and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

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 ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood..

The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.

There is No Morality apart from the Collective Comrade. It is what it is for as long as we decide, how, when, where, why, and that is subject to change without warning. Have a nice day! Don't make me repeat myself now, I might report you to the Party.

The ants are the collective, they are like communists, they all work in the interest of the ant colony not the individual.

They are enslaved and also cannibalistic.

 

[uscitizen]

On where the Grasshopper got his money? From the ant of course. he convinced the ant he could invest his money thru the grasshopper and get more money.
The ant wound up paying himself and the grasshopper as well.

 

[Oldandtired]

Would youjblame Sony for a man that has no income but spent the little money he had on a new TV...and then starved to death?

Give me a break. No one who was starving to death would ever spend their last dollar on a TV. Do you even know anyone who is considered working poor? Obviously not. Your view is so wrong, I don't even know where to begin. I grew up this way due to divorce and a father who refused to pay child support, and trust me, a new TV was the last thing on my mother's mind. She successfully raised three kids on a secretary's salary. I don't know to this day how she did it. You insult every person who works hard in this country to the best of their ability regardless of the hand that was dealt them. You know, the very people who make that CEO rich enough for the big, warm house and gourmet food.

You mean the CEO that was just your average joe who, one day, said "I'm gonna start my own"..and spoent several years working 12-15 hours a day; risked all he had...and diue to his hard work and diligence, made it big?

Like me? A man who was homeless for a while at the age of 23 and sold his fist company at the age of 29?

And let me tell you something....I had allof the reasons to blame everyone. I decided to blame myself.

I wonder if THAT had anything to do with it.

When are you going to get it.

As for the insult you calim I gave off......you read it the way you wanted. You opted to se it as an insult. It was a metaphore....used to make a point.

As for your mom.....whereas it sounds like you are amazed at what she accomplished...I am not. I am proud of Americans like your mom...as I am sure you are as well. They are what make America great.

You think your mom would have achevied so much if she simply "got things"?

 

[Oldandtired]

On where the Grasshopper got his money? From the ant of course. he convinced the ant he could invest his money thru the grasshopper and get more money.
The ant wound up paying himself and the grasshopper as well.

He convinced the ant huh...

Of course it has nothing to do with the ant, through his own personal greed that we all have, allowed himself to be convicned of a deal that was too good to be true.

Nothing to do with that at all I guess....huh?

 

[Mr. Peepers]

You think your mom would have achevied so much if she simply "got things"?

No one is asking to simply "get things". You insulted me because you make it sound like those without are merely dithering their lives away without a care in the world and then demanding a handout. Is that not the "moral" (interesting irony in words, won't you say) of this fable? Not everyone can start their own business, especially in this economy. Starting a business takes money and the demand for a good or service. You act like everyone can just snap their fingers and have their own business that supports them and their family. It takes work and time and research. How is a single mom working 3 jobs to do this, pray tell?

And why would you admire my mother? According to you, because she didn't "succeed", she's the lazy irresponsible grasshopper in this story, so save me your sanctimonious "did what she had to do" bullcrap. According to your little fable, she was a one paycheck away from being like the grasshopper you describe.

 

[uscitizen]

On where the Grasshopper got his money? From the ant of course. he convinced the ant he could invest his money thru the grasshopper and get more money.
The ant wound up paying himself and the grasshopper as well.

He convinced the ant huh...

Of course it has nothing to do with the ant, through his own personal greed that we all have, allowed himself to be convicned of a deal that was too good to be true.

Nothing to do with that at all I guess....huh?

You are most of the way there in figuring it out Old.

Those above us have the power that we give them.
Of course once given it is hard to get back.

Also Greed is a very destructive attitude/emotion.
Why the bible speaks very harshly about it.