it's a socialist plot!
Jul. 12th, 2004 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gmonkey42The ALOD today is Social Security Online: Kids' Place. I can just see some conservative or libertarian getting upset about the cartoon animals and their 'with Social Security, everybody wins' message. Heh heh.
You know, the bit about the grasshopper reminded me: in one of the Comp Lit classes I took, we discussed that story - about the grasshopper who makes fun of the ants for working hard gathering food but then in winter the ants are all cozy growing fungus or whatever in their ant nest and the grasshopper, like, starves to death - and the teacher's take on it was that the story was pro-capitalism. Particularly, he brought up how the grasshopper spent the summer singing and dancing and the ants were like the government wanting to cut funding for the NEA. Which is one possible interpretation, sure. It was just so weird to me because the way it had always been presented to me before was that the ants were smart because they planned for the future and the grasshopper just wanted instant gratification, like that which is promoted by our consumerist culture, and ultimately suffered because of it.
I think the story is better suited to the message I'd heard all along. The one problem I have with the other message is: how are the ants responsible for the grasshopper? I guess it makes a difference that the version I heard from my mum was that the ants did share their food with the grasshopper but he was ashamed. Leaving his frozen corpse huddled outside the ant hole seems a little harsh. But the grasshopper did make fun of the ants for gathering the food. I can understand them not being inclined to help him.
I do believe society has a responsibility to make sure everyone's basic needs for food, shelter and medical care are met, regardless of what they do. If I were an ant, I'd be in favor of having my tax dollars pay for the grasshopper's welfare. But if that particular grasshopper had been teasing me all summer about how dumb it was to work hard, and probably playing his loud grasshopper music next door, I wouldn't feel like letting him hang out in my nest that winter and eat my food. You know? But given that there was no system in place to take care of him... I don't know.
My cousin's been on the dole for much of his adult life. I don't approve, because he's capable of working; he just doesn't want to. I don't say that to him, of course. He lives in England, so I don't see him much anyway. The first thing they need to do is raise minimum wage enough that you make more money by working than by being on government aid (I don't know about minimum wage laws in England but I know he gets more money this way than by working). I know there are plenty of employed people here who still need welfare; they want to support their families but they can't earn enough money. That's crazy.
You know, the bit about the grasshopper reminded me: in one of the Comp Lit classes I took, we discussed that story - about the grasshopper who makes fun of the ants for working hard gathering food but then in winter the ants are all cozy growing fungus or whatever in their ant nest and the grasshopper, like, starves to death - and the teacher's take on it was that the story was pro-capitalism. Particularly, he brought up how the grasshopper spent the summer singing and dancing and the ants were like the government wanting to cut funding for the NEA. Which is one possible interpretation, sure. It was just so weird to me because the way it had always been presented to me before was that the ants were smart because they planned for the future and the grasshopper just wanted instant gratification, like that which is promoted by our consumerist culture, and ultimately suffered because of it.
I think the story is better suited to the message I'd heard all along. The one problem I have with the other message is: how are the ants responsible for the grasshopper? I guess it makes a difference that the version I heard from my mum was that the ants did share their food with the grasshopper but he was ashamed. Leaving his frozen corpse huddled outside the ant hole seems a little harsh. But the grasshopper did make fun of the ants for gathering the food. I can understand them not being inclined to help him.
I do believe society has a responsibility to make sure everyone's basic needs for food, shelter and medical care are met, regardless of what they do. If I were an ant, I'd be in favor of having my tax dollars pay for the grasshopper's welfare. But if that particular grasshopper had been teasing me all summer about how dumb it was to work hard, and probably playing his loud grasshopper music next door, I wouldn't feel like letting him hang out in my nest that winter and eat my food. You know? But given that there was no system in place to take care of him... I don't know.
My cousin's been on the dole for much of his adult life. I don't approve, because he's capable of working; he just doesn't want to. I don't say that to him, of course. He lives in England, so I don't see him much anyway. The first thing they need to do is raise minimum wage enough that you make more money by working than by being on government aid (I don't know about minimum wage laws in England but I know he gets more money this way than by working). I know there are plenty of employed people here who still need welfare; they want to support their families but they can't earn enough money. That's crazy.
