Forum Archive Index - February 2002

[ichi@ihug.co.nz]

Phil Boeyen wrote:
> 
> Are we a country of optimists or pessimists?  

The real question is: are we a country of ants or grasshoppers?

The Ant works hard all summer long, laying up supplies for the 
winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and plays the 
summer away.  Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed.  But
the Grasshopper has no food or fuel.

So, the shivering Grasshopper applies for an Emergency Benefit and 
visits his local Food Bank, where he is filmed by a TV3 news crew 
doing a story on poverty.  That night on nationwide television, John 
Campbell demands to know why the Grasshopper is cold and starving
when the Ant is warm and well fed.  The next night on TV1, Paul 
Holmes interviews the pitiful Grasshopper and shows film of the 
Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. 

The people of New Zealand are appalled.  How can it be that this 
poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?  Donations flood into TV1.  
And then the politicians get involved.  Steve Maharey offers the 
Grasshopper a cheap state house in Palmerston North (with free use 
of a mayoral car).  Helen Clark offers the Grasshopper a highly-paid 
position on the Closing the Gaps Taskforce.  Sue Bradford accuses 
the Ant of getting rich by exploiting the poor and calls for an 
immediate tax rise to make the rich pay their "fair share".  Jim 
Anderton offers the Grasshopper a position on the Alliance Party 
List.   

Meanwhile the Ant has his tax rate increased from 39% to 49% and 
is spit at on the street by perfect strangers.


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