This is so freek'n true!!!

[kaydee457 13]

This is so true.....

Two Different Versions! Two Different Morals!

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 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."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house

where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome."

Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry 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.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a

defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel

of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent

welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits

of the ant's 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.

[pedroh 21]

lol cmon, why don't u just say vote republican.. cuz the dems are omgwtf

[Jasman0717 9]

[Jamie76 0]

That was pretty lame.

[joelunchbox 0]

That was pretty lame.

Or, ant controls all the capital, only hires alien grasshoppers to work for him. Farms out other jobs to foreign grasshoppers in neighboring fields. Doesn't worry about health care for grasshopper because the ant has the best health care in the world.

Need I go on....

simple stories do not usually relate to the real world. The simple answer to Iraq was...Hey! We did that!! Invasion!! That was really simple wasn't it??? Now where are we??

I don't think the government is the best thing to help people, but judging by the "Haves" I have seen, it is apparently the only help the destitute will get.

There but for the grace of God go I.

[JODO 2]

That was pretty lame.

[SteveLaura 0]

I suppose it's true if you equate 'poor' and 'lazy'. I don't. Pick up 'Nickel & Dimed' or "the Working Poor' at your library for some interesting reading.

[peejay 327]

I suppose it's true if you equate 'poor' and 'lazy'. I don't. Pick up 'Nickel & Dimed' or "the Working Poor' at your library for some interesting reading.

I don't put everybody in the same boat either or paint all poor people with the same brush, but I live in a neighborhood that at one time or another has been surrounded by Section 8 housing projects. It has been a real eye opener. The homeowner's associations whose member's houses bordered these projects sued to get them removed from the neighborhood and eventually bulldozed to the ground. The crime spinning out of these government subsidized projects and the condition these properties degenerated into was appalling. After bulldozing, the land was turned into parks. What an improvement to the neighborhood! The crime statistics for the neighborhood plummeted. Good riddance!

Give people a hand up...not a hand out. The poor with their act together will eventually move up and out. The bums will wallow in their own misery and make everybody else miserable that live near them. What you sow is what you reap.

[almaty 19]

it was a lame story and insulting

[Ban Hammer 13,342]

it was a lame story and insulting

here's you another one

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that

every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something

like this.

The first four men -- the poorest -- would pay nothing; the fifth

would pay $1, the sixth would pay $3, the seventh $7, the eighth $12, the

ninth $18, and the tenth man -- the richest -- would pay $59.

That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the

restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement -- until

one day, the owner threw them a curve (in tax language a tax cut).

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to

reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." So now dinner for the ten only

cost $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So

the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But

what about the other six -- the paying customers? How could they divvy up

the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"

The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they

subtracted that from everybody's share, Then the fifth man and The

sixth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant

owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly

the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should

pay.

And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh

paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man

with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59.

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four

continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to

compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the

sixth man, but he, pointing to the tenth. "But he got $7!". "Yeah, that's

right," exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar, too,

........It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!". That's true!"

shouted the seventh man, why should he get $7 back when I got only $2?" The

wealthy get all the breaks!". Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in

unison, "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he

didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him.

But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late

what was very important. They were FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS short of paying the

bill!

Imagine that!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how

the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most

benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being

wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. Where

would that leave the rest?

Unfortunately, most taxing authorities anywhere cannot seem

to grasp this rather straight-forward logic!

[Fandango 1,439]

Hahahaha, I enjoyed it and totally agree.....

[GaryC 7]

Shhhh Charles, don't confuse the liberals.

[Peikko 1,575]

I guess anyone that thinks these apocryphal stories somehow reflects reality presumably see real life in these simplistic terms. The poor are the foolish grasshoppers waiting for government hand out, the rich are the hard working ants who don't see why they should pay for the lazy grasshoppers. The rich are taxed too heavily so don't annoy them because they just might opt out of the tax system.

Still, enjoy it if it appeals to you.

[smoke20 0]

i read this this morning, then wrote on a piece of paper who'd be pi$$y about it & who'd be "true so true" or laugh about it.

i was right!!! i gotta quit camping out on VJ.

[Ban Hammer 13,342]

i read this this morning, then wrote on a piece of paper who'd be pi$$y about it & who'd be "true so true" or laugh about it.

i was right!!! i gotta quit camping out on VJ.

it also means you're an old hand now.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!