A Fable

alexbalk:

IN the market one summer’s day a Grasshopper was house-hunting, chirping and singing to his heart’s content about the great rate it was getting on a mortgage and how the value of his purchase could only continue to go up. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was delivering to his landlord as rent.

“Why not come and buy property with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of spending money on something for which you will build no equity? Won’t you feel silly when the house I bought for nothing is worth three times its value?”

“I am waiting for the market to return to reality,” said the Ant. “This entire boom is built on false premises and we all know that someday soon there will be a mighty reckoning where things return to their real values. Perhaps this winter.”

“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “we have got plenty of credit and equity at present. Why, I just got a second mortgage so I could purchase this plasma TV!”

But the Ant went on its way and continued to rent.

When the winter finally came and the Grasshopper found itself overextended and facing the possibility of homelessness and bankruptcy, it thought back to what the Ant had said during the summer, when it was saving its corn for the market correction. Then the Grasshopper knew: “IT IS BEST TO PREPARE FOR THE DAYS OF NECESSITY.”

Fortunately for the Grasshopper, there were people who decided that it was more important that the vast numbers of profligate Grasshoppers be allowed to stay in homes they couldn’t afford and didn’t deserve in the first place, so they took some of the corn the Ant had saved up and made sure that it went towards keeping the grasshopper and his ilk in their ill-gotten shelter.

The baffled Ant said “Fuck it,” and blew what was left of its on strippers and meth. Every now and again the Grasshopper would think sadly of the Ant, still paying rent on his cramped apartment, eking out his exhausting days trying to get just a little more corn. Then the Grasshopper would turn back to his giant TV and forget all about it.