The Ant & The Grasshopper

[Edric O]

yes once again i understand that... thats why i put it in italics... however, i must say that when the only personal experience one has is that of a particular type... it is hard for that person to pity the ones that arent of that type.... which he hasnt met yet or will never meet in his life-time.

Haven't you ever visited working class neighborhoods? Don't you know any people who have a family to support and work their ass off on minimum wage jobs? Or hard working people who have recently been laid off as a result of corporate downsizing? These are the poor "ants", and there are lots of them...

However... one has to ask himself if a large group of people have similiar opinions and experiences such as himself... then perhaps there may be truth to the grasshopper stereotype.

How did poor people get such a reputation for being grasshoppers?

More often than not, stereotypes are invented by certain groups of people with specific purposes in mind (purposes which involve the distortion of reality). The stereotype of the "lazy poor" was created by the super-rich and it is targeted at the middle class. It's meant to drive a wedge between the poor and the middle class; to make the middle class hate the poor. Divide and conquer. The super-rich want the middle class to blame the "lazy poor" for all their problems, so that the poor and the middle class will be too busy fighting each other to notice that they are all in fact being screwed by the super-rich.

So your stereotype is a very useful tool for the rich and powerful... And they are the ones who created and propagated it, using their absolute control over the media.

Have you noticed that the poor never speak up to defend themselves? That's because they can't speak up. Being poor, they don't have access to any means of mass communication. How many poor do you see on the internet?

And in fact, the vast majority of the poor are ants, not grasshoppers. They have to be ants, just so that they can afford a decent standard of living.

On the other hand, a billionaire playing golf or enjoying a luxury cruise in the Carribean is the perfect image of a "grasshopper".