Are Clothes The Only Thing That Separates Union Workers From Monkeys?

From BBC News Science:

Monkeys have a sense of justice. They will protest if they see another monkey get paid more for the same task.

Monkeys display sense of justice Researchers taught brown capuchin monkeys to swap tokens for food. Usually they were happy to exchange this "money" for cucumber.

But if they saw another monkey getting a grape - a more-liked food - they took offense. Some refused to work, others took the food and refused to eat it.

Scientists say this work suggests that human's sense of justice is inherited and not a social construct......."We put pairs of capuchins side by side and one of them would get the cucumber as a reward for a task."

The partner sometimes got the same food reward but on other occasions got a grape, sometimes without even having to work for it."

'A highly unusual behaviour'

The response was dramatic, the researchers said.

"We were looking for a very objective reaction and we got one. They typically refused the task they were set," Sarah Brosnan said.

"The other half of the time they would complete the task but wouldn't take the reward. That is a highly unusual behaviour.

"Sometimes they ignored the reward, sometimes they took it and threw it down," she added.

Nature/Emory University The researchers were not surprised that the monkeys showed a sense of fairness, but they were taken aback that they would turn down an otherwise acceptable reward.

"They never showed a reaction against their partner, they never blamed them," Sarah Brosnan said.

Commenting on the results, experts in the subject told BBC News Online that the idea of a long evolutionary history for a sense of fairness was an exciting one.

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By the results of this experiment, is sure does seem that union mentality is indeed innate in primates. Monkeys can't possibly understand the concept of striking, but they really don't behave much differently than unionized workers when it comes right down to it.

Aside from the correlation between monkeys and union workers, there is further evidence that morality, fairness, ethics, etc. is innate as well. These monkeys were not taught the "morality" found in the bible, or the "ethics" or "fairness" that comes from reading the bible and going to a house of worship regularly, yet one could easily write down a few commandments or bible verses based on how to right this wrong when it comes to special treatment for certain monkeys:

1. Thou shalt not be envious of thy neighbour even if thy neighbour seems to be a lot more luckier than thou.

2. The Lord giveth some monkeys more than others. Remember, the Lord works in mysterious ways, there is always a reason for this, so thou shalt accept whatever the Lord giveth without thinking about it further.

3. Though shalt not covet thy neighbour's grape.

4. Those who eat cucumbers shall inherit the earth.

OK, enough of that.

Hey, how about a Ontario election political spin?:

John Tory: "It is only fair that if one monkey gets a grape that every monkey that wants a grape should get one too. Even though it will be costly and probably 75% of all monkeys will want grapes in the near future, and I haven't really thought about the overall cost of this, fair is fair. I realize that this violates separation of produce and state too. And I can't worry that these grape eating monkeys won't hang out with the cucumber eating monkeys or that the cucumber eating monkeys will be getting lower quality cucumbers. And I especially can't worry about certain grape eating monkeys from using their grapes for terrorist purposes."

DAlton McGuinty: "We have improved the quality of cucumbers the last four years and will continue to focus on improving them. The fact that certain monkeys get grapes is not something I can do anything about right now. The cucumber eating monkeys health and welfare is my main concern, and it is great to see black, brown and white monkeys all getting along while eating cucumbers."

Howard Hampton: "I agree with McGuinty that we should focus on improving the quality of cucumbers, though he is lying about improving the quality of them in the last 4 years. I too choose to ignore the grape eating monkeys, because I want to get as many seats as possible. Though, if the cucumber eating monkeys get really upset that certain monkeys get grapes, I will support as many strikes as it takes to at least get the cucumber monkeys something better than cucumbers."

Frank de Jong: "I think that if monkeys want to eat grapes, they should all pay extra for them. This is the only fair solution that is acceptable. As far as I'm concerned the government should only fund monkeys who eat will accept cucumbers. I strongly believe in the separation of produce and state. But heck, I can tell the truth because I have no chance of getting elected anyway."