Actually, the pigs lives in an egalitarian society. All three had access to straw, sticks, and bricks. Unfortunately, there was no sort of meritocracy involved until the wolf came along. The stupid pigs were allowed to do as they wished. No building codes, and no one wanted to "dwelling-shame" them.
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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Showerthoughts
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Well with infinite access to resources the pigs should have been stockpiling and starting to build businesses in the expectation that they would have needed to protect their property and could have hired a bigger, badder wolf at an acceptable market rate to ensure a minimal loss
/s in case that wasn’t clear
The wolf brought natural selection into the picture and now all the houses are much better than before.
The cartoon that I saw showed the first 2 pigs dancing and goofing around after they quickly built their houses, while the third pig continued working on his brick house. I always thought the moral was a simple "work now, play later".
I thought it was, "Never trust a wolf who wants in your house?"
I thought it was that you should build your house out of decently strong materials or it may collapse under a stiff breeze
Yes, exactly. If those silly poor people only worked harder they too could be aristocracy.
How is that different from blaming poor people they have a bad work ethic?
Because it was a message about needed to stockpile for the winter or other emergencies. It was a message from parents to their children.
I legit have a copy of this story somewhere that ends with a “the moral is…” statement along the lines of “that’s why you should work hard and not be lazy”.
Like, what? We did not cover the work ethic of the pigs at all here. As far as I can tell, they each built an entire goddamn house! What about the wolf?
The version I remember being told had the first little pig just look around and see straw, the second little pig had to go gather sticks from the nearby woods, and the third little pig had to actually make the bricks over days.
The cover by Green Jelly explains it better
I know this is days late, but I’m glad to see the canonical version with Rammmmmmmbo mentioned.
And that's why you should use tools instead of trying to blow a house down if you wanna eat some little pigs.
I prefer the Green Jelly version of the story.
"The moral of the story is a band with no talent can easily amuse idiots with a stupid puppet show."
'dont make your house out of flimsy shit or else some fucker is gonna demolish and murder you' ???
I don't remember any of the versions of this story involving money.
Nobody ever mentioned where the materials came from, it was just two dumbasses who decided to build their houses out of inferior materials
No no you don’t understand. Every children’s story is about beating your competition in the market and how regulation doesn’t actually support competition because it’s on you to analyze and prepare for market forces. Also my billion dollar vehicle company is failing because I didn’t properly prepare, I’m gonna need a major government bailout
If you give a mouse a cookie....
He'll use it to overthrow the government and install a far-right terrorist regime: The Book
It could also be interpreted as a criticism of Libertarianism. The first two pigs didn't go by any building codes, and instead decided that they wanted to build their shelters out of inferior materials with substandard protections against high winds. The third pig made sure that his dwelling met hurricane standards, and was saved. The story doesn't go into the reasons why pigs #1 and #2 chose inferior building materials, so it could be interpreted in a number of different ways. It doesn't HAVE to be about economics. It could just be that pigs #1 and #2 were big fans of Ayn Rand and reaped the whirlwind as a result.
100% lol, hadn't thought of it that way
As per usual. If you don't have money to protect yourself, it's because you're lazy and/or stupid, and definitely worth condescending.
The 4th pig built his house from wolf skulls, significantly less practical but it does send a fucking message.
What?
What are some other aristocracy-informed cautionary tales haha?
Rudolph the rednosed reindeer
It is bad to be different as long as it is not economically exploitable
Every fairy tale with a good king/queen/princess/prince?
Or One Thousand and One Nights has the king killing his wifes left and right, but by the end it's alright, because he really loves his current wife now...
Since you are asking for cautionary tales, The Fisherman and his Wife might a better fit. Just be glad of what you have and don't strive for advancing.
Ever worry that you might be reading things into a text that just aren't there?