Cartoon : Hard work pays off, but for whom?

Cartoon by Chuck Asay of Colorado published on 24 June 2010.

This conservative political cartoon is inspired from the famous Grasshopper and the Ant fable attributed to Aesop. In that fable, the grasshopper spends his summer lazily singing and playing while the ant is industrious  and stores up food for the winter months to come.

In the cartoon, the ants ask how the grasshoppers can get away with not working. If you get away with something, you manage to do something bad without being punished or criticized for it. However, the ants reassure themselves that their hard work will pay off someday. In other words, their hard work will bring them some benefit.  According to the artist, the ants’ (‘responsible’ states) hard work paid off for the grasshoppers (representation for ‘irresponsible’ states such as California or New York as viewed by the cartoonist) when the government took from the hardworking ants to give to the slothful grasshoppers.

Questions to consider : What do you think the cartoonist is referring to? What political statement is he trying to make? To practice your written expression, feel free to leave your comments.

OTHER USEFUL VOCABULARY

to store up	to keep a lot of something so you can use it later synonyms: to set aside, to lay aside, to stockpile
industrious (adj.)	always working hard synonyms: hardworking, diligent, sedulous, assiduous
slothful (adj.)	lazy synonyms: idle, shiftless, indolent, supine