Why do I have to pay my bills, and other people don't have to pay their bills? It leaves me feeling like a chump.
If "The Ant And The Grasshopper" was to be rewritten for modern times ...
1.) A Grasshopper gets elected President
2.) The Grasshopper uses Government to confiscate wealth (food, shelter) from the ants and redistribute it to the Grasshoppers for 'equity'.
3.) The Grasshopper demands the ants forfeit more of their earnings and savings because the ants have already spent their previous re-distribution from the Government.
4.) The rich ants can afford to move to another domain that treats ant's earnings and savings better.
5.) The middle-class ants can no longer afford to live in the Grasshopper's domain, and gradually migrate elsewhere.
6.) Only grasshoppers and ants too poor to move remain in the Grasshopper's domain.
7.) The Grasshopper runs out of ants' wealth to spend as his domain's economy and GDP shrink.
8.) The Grasshopper demands that the ants' domains need to "pay their fair share" to the
Grasshopper's domain.
9.) As a condition, the ants demand an audit of the Grasshoppers' government spending; the grasshopper protests saying there is no time for an audit; there's are emergencies and crisises afoot that demand immediate response, or else many grasshoppers may die during the cold winter.
10.) The slim majority of ants' domains agree to help the Grasshopper's domain while the audit proceeds.
11.) The audit shows that the Grasshopper spent his domain's wealth to build bike lanes, rail trails, wind farms, and solar panels - none of which contributed to growing the economy or GDP.
12.) Conservative ant domains tell the Grasshopper domain to reap what they have sown.
13.) Moderate and Liberal ant domains agree to unconditionally help the Grasshopper domain get through the Winter.
14.) What was meant to be temporary assistance to help the Grasshopper's domain survive one Winter becomes an annual obligatiion.
15.) Soon, more ants move away from Moderate and Liberal ant domains to Conservative ant domains.
16.) The Moderate and the Liberal ant domains see their ant populations, GDP, and economies shrink.
17.) The Moderate and the Liberal ant domains ask the Conservative ant domains for assistance.
18.) The Conservative ant domains place a condition on their assistance to the other ant domains - the Moderate and Liberal ants domains must cease their subsidizing the Grasshopper Domain.
19.) The Moderate and the Liberal ant domains ask, "Why?" - The Conservative Ants reply "Because it is your subsidization of the Grasshopper domain that has bankrupted you; we don't want to make the same mistake."
20.) The Moderate and Liberal ant domains refuse that condition, and continue their subsidization of the Grasshopper domain.
21.) When Spring arrives, the Conservative ant domain is thriving with a growing population, growing economy, and growing GDP. The Moderate ant domain is in a recession. The Liberal ant domain is in a depression. The Grasshopper domain barely survived, thanks to the subsidies from the Moderate and Liberal ant domains.
22.) The Grasshopper domain requests more assistance than ever; the Conservative ant domains refuse; the Moderate ant domains reduce their subsidies; the Liberal ant domains increase their subsidies.
23.) The next Spring, the Conservative domains thrives; the Moderate ant domains are an pulling out of their recessions; the Liberal ant domains did not survive the Winter; the Grasshopper domain barely survived the Winter thanks to the generous subsidies from the Liberal ant domains.
24.) The remaining ants call a congress to study what caused the Liberal ant domain to fail; they discovered that the Liberal ant domain failed because it double-downed on its subsidization of the failing Grasshopper domain.
