Little Red Hen update...
animated version:
MODERN VERSION
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 it came time to bake the bread. "Who will help me bake the 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 her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share.
But the little red hen said, "No, I can eat the five loaves."
"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 around 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 is the wonderful free enterprise system. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide their product 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.
---------------
Still another version:
http://www.caelsanderson.com/latest-news/a-modern-day-version-of-the-little-red-hen/
A modern-day version of "The Little Red Hen"
"Said the big white rooster, 'Gosh all hemlock; things are really tough,
Seems that worms are getting scarcer and I cannot find enough;
What's become of all those fat ones is a mystery to me;
There were thousands through the rosy spell but now where can they be?'
The little red hen who heard him didn't grumble or complain,
She had gone through lots of dry spells, she had lived through floods of rain;
So she flew up on the grindstone and she gave her claws a whet,
As she said: 'I've never seen the time there were no worms to get.'
She picked a new and undug spot-the earth was hard and firm,
The big white rooster jeered, 'New ground! That's no place for a worm."
"The little red hen just spread her feet, she dug both fast and free,
'I must go to the worms,' she said, 'the worms won't come to me.'
"The rooster vainly spent his day, through habit, by the ways
Where fat worms have passed in squads, back in the rainy days.
When night fall found him supperless, he growled in accents rough,
'I'm hungry as a fowl can be-conditions sure are tough.'
He turned then to the little red hen and said, 'It's worse with you,
'For you're not only hungry but you must be tired, too.
'I rested while I watched for worms so I feel fairly perk,
'But how are you? Without worms, too? And after all that work.'
"The little red hen hopped to her perch and dropped her eyes to sleep,
And murmured in a drowsy tone, 'Young man, hear this and weep,
I'm full of worms and happy, for I've dined both long and well,
The worms are there as always-but I had to dig like heck.'
"Oh, here and there, white roosters still are holding sales positions,
They cannot do much business now, because of poor conditions,
But soon as things get right again, they'll sell a hundred firms-
Meanwhile the little red hens are out a-gobbling up the worms."
-author unknown