The Ant and the Grasshopper

Once upon a time, in a beautiful peaceful field, there lived two very different creatures: an Ant, and a Grasshopper.

It was Spring, the weather was warm, the times were pleasant, and life was good.

The Ant spent all his time preparing for hard times, should they ever come. He made his little ant-hole drier and more secure, and spent hours each day carrying seeds and fruit, food of all kinds, to his larder, socking it all away, "just in case".

The Grasshopper spent his time eating, lounging in the sweet sunshine, laying about, partying, and pestering the living crap out of the Ant. Grasshopper was the original Party Animal, who thought the Ant was terminally out of touch and no fun at all.

"Hey Ant", said the Grasshopper, "come party with me, dude! I've got some killer weed here, with no weed killer, if you know what I mean, man... c'mon, let's party!"

The Ant replied, "maybe after I get this current harvest in, and prepare the new storage facility, and get a bit more saved up for winter... maybe then, I'll party up a bit."

"Sheesh, whatever, dude, you buzzkill.." muttered the Grasshopper, as he hopped of to soak up more weeds and sunshine, maybe play some hackysack or frisbee or something.

Spring turned into Summer, and still the Ant carried on, working from dawn till dusk, saving up for Winter. And still Grasshopper played and partied, stalling and partying, waiting till "later" to save up.

Summer waxed, and waned, Fall came about, and the weather began to cool a bit. Still, Grasshopper found plenty to eat, lots of fruit and leaves (although those were getting a bit crunchy), and decided he had plenty of time to prepare for faraway Winter. And still, Ant was a partypooper, work work work.

Finally, Winter arrived. Ant was warm, snug, and dry, with plenty of food to see him through the cold hard times. Grasshopper, on the other hand, was freezing, starving, and homeless. He pounded on Ant's door, begging to be let in, to be saved.

Grasshopper died. Ant dragged his carcass in, and added him to the menu for the winter.

At least, that's what should have happened. In our current reality, all the Grasshoppers who never saved and who expected Spring and Summer would never end, and their property values would continue to climb, overthrew Nature and had Ant turned out of his house, along with all his savings. Everybody died, and the field lay empty and fallow for years thereafter.

Sucks, doesn't it?

Moral of the story: when another civilization rises from the economic ashes of this one, let them remember our mistakes, and live for themselves, reap where they sow, and not setup a house of cards based on preying on future victims and generations.

We've got a lot of work to do, to repair our economy. We need Ants, not Grasshoppers.