CDR: Re: The Ant and the Grasshopper, Election Version

[Neil Johnson]

Tim,

Probably not a good idea to use ants as the heroes in YOUR story since they
are probably the best example of the subjugation of individual freedoms to
the goals of a society.

However, I found an interesting discussion of the fable and it's variants
at: http://www.progress.org/archive/antgrass.htm

I thought this version was interesting:

The ants work hard all summer, producing products and services, such as in
manufacturing, farming, and transportation. Grasshoppers laugh and dance and
play all summer, without producing anything.
Come winter though, the productive ants are hungry and shivering, while the
unproductive grasshoppers are warm and well-fed! How did this happen?

Easy: the grasshoppers own the land the hardworking ants live and work on.
The grasshoppers collect land taxes from the ants, but call it land "rent".
Since the grasshoppers did not produce the land, these land taxes (land
"rent" payments) are really welfare payments to grasshoppers.

Some grasshoppers are somewhat productive, providing building maintenance
for their tenants. But the part of the "rent" that is simply a payment for
using the land, which the grasshoppers did not make, is simply a land tax,
used for welfare payments to grasshopper- landlords.

Some grasshoppers used to make the mistake of calling these land payments by
what they are: land taxes. But then libertarians raised a fuss, since
they're against taxes. So, the grasshoppers changed the name, and started
calling the land payments land "rent". Then the libertarians said "Oh,
that's different. Go right ahead and collect these land payments from the
ants." And they did. And they still do.

This version of the fable is by Mike O'Mara.

On the humorous side: (See http://www.klydemorris.com/society.htm ).

And I know Tim, People like me need killing.

Neil M. Johnson
njohnson at interl.net
http://www.interl.net/~njohnson
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