Monday, October 17, 2011

Ronald Reagan's Little Red Hen


A modern day little red hen may not sound like or appear to be a quotable authority on economics but then some authorities aren't worth quoting. I'll be right back.

About a year ago I imposed a little poetry on you. It was called "The Incredible Bread Machine" and made a lot of sense with reference to matters economic. You didn't object too much so having gotten away with it once I'm going to try again. This is a little treatise on basic economics called "The Modern little Red Hen."

Once upon a time there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered some grains of wheat. She called her neighbors and said 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'

"Not I, " said the cow.

"Not I," said the duck.

"Not I," said the pig.

"Not I," said the goose.

"Then I will," said the little red hen. And she did. The wheat grew tall and ripened into golden grain. "Who will help me reap my wheat?" asked the little red hen.

"Not I," said the duck.

"Out of my classification," said the pig.

"I'd lose my seniority," said the cow.

"I'd lose my unemployment compensation," said the goose.

"Then I will," said the little red hen, and she did.

At last the time came to bake the bread. "Who will help me bake bread?" asked the little red hen.

"That would be overtime for me," said the cow.

"I'd lose my welfare benefits," said the duck.

"I'm a dropout and never learned how," said the pig.

"If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination," said the goose.

"Then I will," said the little red hen.

She baked five loaves and held them up for the neighbors to see.

They all wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, "No, I can eat the five loaves myself."

"Excess profits," cried the cow.

"Capitalist leech," screamed the duck.

"I demand equal rights," yelled the goose.

And the pig just grunted.

And they painted "unfair" picket signs and marched round and around the little red hen shouting obscenities.

When the government agent came, he said to the little red hen, "You must not be greedy."

"But I earned the bread," said the little red hen.

"Exactly," said the agent. "That's the wonderful free enterprise system. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations productive workers must divide their products with the idle."

And they lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, "I am grateful, I am grateful." But her neighbors wondered why she never again baked any more bread.

6 comments:

Whitehawk said...

Interesting that it was a little RED hen.

Were the cow, pig, duck and goose blue by chance?

Just curious.

philmon said...

Even more interesting that the original story probably came from pre-communist Russia.

In my experience with chickens, the red hen was probably more of a reddish brown hen, anyway.

Given the Left's history of hijacking symbols and words, I wonder who came up with the Red=Republican, Blue=Democrat standard.

I mean, the "Federalists" were against federalism while the "Anti-Federalists" were for federalism. The Federalists hijacked the term. Classical Liberals are now called "Conservative" because they want to conserve liberalism, whereas "Liberals" now want as much control as any Monarch or Dictator ever had -- over our lives. Once Classical Liberalism was Progress, but now "Progressive" means only what modern "Liberals" want.

I'm sure there's more. Civil rights, when the Republicans were pushing it, meant equal protection under the law for everyone. Now it means special treatment for certain demographics -- the same demographics the Republicans were pushing for equal rights for -- but now somehow equal protection is racist.

It's just in-freakin'-sane.

Jeff Weimer said...

"Given the Left's history of hijacking symbols and words, I wonder who came up with the Red=Republican, Blue=Democrat standard."

That only goes back to the 2000 election. Prior, the colors alternated. I guess you could pin the blame on Tim Russert, who popularized the terms red and blue states.

philmon said...

I did not know that. Thanks!

Whitehawk said...

FYI Dana Loesh must be scoping out your blog. She just played Reagan Reagan reciting this poem on her show.

philmon said...

Dana can scope me any time she wants ;-)

Did I mention I'm good friends with one of Chris's Aunts? They're really good people.