Sarah
The Ant and the Grasshopper - CLASSIC 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 he's 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.
The Ant and the Grasshopper - 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
he's 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 less fortunate are cold and starving. National News shows 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. The nation 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?
The opposition parties stage a demonstration in front of the ant's
house, where the news stations film the group singing, "We Shall Overcome."
A local member of government rants in an interview with celebrity news
reporter that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and
calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share".
Finally, the Government drafts the Economic Equity and Anti Grasshopper
Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for
failing to hire green bugs for help and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. 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 bya gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
