The Little Red Hen found a grain of wheat and somehow managed to grow a crop, asking her fellow creatures if they’d like to help with the planting, the cultivation, the harvest, the grinding of the flour and the baking of the bread. They were always too busy watching television or texting each other. But when they sniffed the delightful aroma of the freshly baked bread, they came out to the kitchen to get a slice. The Little Red Hen told them to get lost: “I made it all myself and, by heavens, I’ll eat it all myself.” When they yelled, “You didn’t build that!” she told them to get a life. A freshman congresswoman cried that everyone should have bread even if they didn’t “feel like” working. The Little Red Hen told her to butt out.

The tale of “The Little Red Hen.” PHOTO: ALAMY

The moral: Hard-working people aren’t tolerant of slackers.

Then there was the Vermont senator who was deeply dissatisfied with a goose that was laying golden eggs but didn’t care about social justice. He thought that if he could learn the goose’s secret, he and his fellow senators could pass a law that would replicate the process.