Meanwhile Mr. or Ms. 16 hours bides their time, saving and scrimping every cent. Eventually, robots are produced to flip burgers automatically. The grasshopper dies, the ant lives.

Meanwhile Mr. or Ms. 16 hours bides their time, saving and scrimping every cent. They grow envious of 8's happiness and decide to buy a weapon with the money they've saved. No one stops them. The grasshopper dies, the ant lives.

Meanwhile Mr. or Ms. 16 hours bides their time, saving and scrimping every cent. 16 saves up enough money to be able to procure some means of production, and forms a burger company. BurgerB takes enough customers away from BurgerA so that the grasshopper gets laid off. The grasshopper dies, the ant lives.

Yeah, I know, in some versions of the story the ant lets the grasshopper in and he learns his lesson and everyone is happy. Not this one. There's always going to be some jerk red ant acting purely to gain control of the market and/or situation, and the regulations on the market should be at most to keep these red ants' actions within reason, and at least a safety net for the grasshopper to not starve through a winter. I won't debate at all whether current governments meet these requirements, as I don't believe they do. However, a truly free market won't meet either.