The Simpsons has been a dysfunctional family we're all meant to laugh at, but 32 years into their existence can most of us even aspire to be as financially secure as they are?
The most famous dysfunctional family of 1990s television enjoyed an almost dreamily secure existence that now seems out of reach. Homer, a high-school graduate whose union job at the nuclear-power plant required little technical skill, supported a family of five. A home, a car, food, regular doctor’s appointments, and enough left over for plenty of beer at the local bar were all attainable on a single working-class salary.
This lifestyle was not fantastical in the slightest—on the contrary, the Simpsons used to be quite ordinary, they were a lot like my Michigan working-class family in the 1990s. But their life no longer resembles reality for many American middle-class families.
The purchasing power of Homer’s paycheck has shrunk dramatically. In today’s world, Marge would have to get a job too. But even then, they would struggle. Inflation and stagnant wages have led to a rise in two-income households, but to an erosion of economic stability for the people who occupy them.
And then, the killer:
“That a show which was originally about a dysfunctional mess of a family barely clinging to middle class life in the aftermath of the Reagan administration has now become aspirational is frankly the most on the nose manifestations [sic] of capitalist American decline I can think of.”
Ugh. Fucking hell.
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