The Simpsons' lifestyle is unattainable, confirming the American Dream is dead
TV Features The Simpsons
When The Simpsons first hit televisions back in 1989, they were meant to embody most Americans’ notions of typical suburban family: the dad with a working class job, the homemaker wife, three kids, a cat, a dog—the usual. But 1989 was a long-ass time ago, and my, oh my, have things changed. Although the show’s cartoon characters aren’t subject to aging, the world around the Simpsons clan has kept up its societal reference points, leading some to ponder the question: Can a prototypical nuclear family à la Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie survive American’s modern economic horrors?
…C’mon. We all know the answer to that one.
And so does NPR’s Planet Money, which last month aired a story examining whether or not we could consider the Simpsons a “middle-class” family by 2021's standards. To do this, they spoke with Dani Alexis Ryskamp, author of the Atlantic essay “The Life in The Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable.” Ryskamp went to super-fan lengths to determine the exact dollars and cents, such as pinpointing an exact shot of Homer’s paycheck in a 1996 episode and extrapolating that he would have made about $25,000 that year.
“Back in 1996, the median household income was about $35,000. So if Homer’s salary stayed in the same place relative to the median household income, Homer would be earning around $50,000 today, which is definitely a solid salary,” explains Planet Money’s co-host, Stacey Vanek Smith, before Ryskamp morbidly reminds us, “Tuition has more than doubled. Health care costs have more than doubled. I believe housing costs have more than doubled.”
“The idea that you could have one breadwinner in a family of five who had a high-school education, working a union job at a power plant and buying a nice house in the suburbs and supporting a spouse and these three other kids…at this point, [it’s] not normal but aspirational,” they continue.
So, yeah. Basically, most people would kill for Homer’s originally mediocre, middle-of-the-road lifestyle these days. Is The Simpsons an accurate depiction of middle-class life? Definitely no. Is it still funny? We’ll leave you all to devour one another in the comments section for that one…
Oh, and that episode featuring Homer’s paycheck? It’s from Season 7's “Much Apu About Nothing,” so at least showrunners have caught up with the times in other aspects…sort of.
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360 Comments
The flip side is that homer, as a nuclear safety inspector of over 30 years, would almost definitely be making six figures.
If what I’ve observed in the corporate world translated to cartoon Springfield, his incompetence would mean he would have been promoted several times by now and making an enviable salary doing his job badly.
Well, after he started smoking weed, didn’t he get promoted to executive vice president for a while there while still being stoned?
Homer did once rig up a mop, bucket, and a tape player into a dummy to cover for him while he went on an adventure.
The dummy got promoted up to a corner office before the tape player caught fire & burned down the building.
Well, when he had that great hair he did all that.
his incompetence would mean he would have been promoted several times by now He’d be a Republican state senator.
He would absolutely be a manager now because he’s a yellow man in a yellow man’s world and everyone knows they always fail upwards.
In the real world, Homer would have been promoted to be a do-nothing Director of Nuclear Safety while some underpaid underling does all his work.
Probably a VP by now.
According to the Dilbert Principle he definitely would’ve been promoted out of the way of productive employees several times by now. All the way to upper management where he’s less likely to interfere with actual work.
Dudes in the oil industry push and haul snow making 6 figures with a high school diploma. Got a CDL? Great, that’s another $50K in your pocket.
Can confirm. On the flip side, met a dude that went to Stanford, left a cush office job in Chicago to be a truck driver, now makes over $150k a year and doesn’t have to deal with city costs, lives in central IL (I would never, but he likes it) with a few hundred acres. He might be making more if he stayed in Chicago, but he DEFINITELY would be spending more.
I was about to rage on hating Central Illinois, then I realized for years I had been turning down a lot better paying jobs than I have in Central Illinois. I love Blo-No and Springfield, but nah I prefer it up north here.
So he should have stuck with Mr. Plow?
Always amazed no porn star has called himself ‘Mr. Plow’.
Having worked in the snow for some of the biggest oil companies, I still wonder where all these ideas of everyone making tons of money in the oil and they always say they know a guy, but I met every guy and nobody made that kind of money without a lot of extra stuff. A standard worker in the best paid lines would make about $70k, even with a full CDL. Seasonal workers would make like like $40k through the winter season. For someone to be making 6 figures with only a high school diploma they have to be on senior supervisor level with a ton of certificates and a good rep and any engineer or geologist would surpass them in like 2 to 4 years anyway.
“Having worked in the snow for some of the biggest oil companies, I still wonder where all these ideas of everyone making tons of money”From said snow pushers who live in 2,000 sqft houses and no degree. To be fair, I believe the stories mostly come from older workers from the 60s when Prudhoe was discovered. But then again, I know at least 7 families throughout Alaska who have no advanced degree and earn over 6 figures. Sure they worked their way up, but it was only a few years before they got to their goal.
“A standard worker in the best paid lines would make about $70k, even with a full CDL.”Someone with a high school diploma without a CDL and a slope job would be making $20,000 a year. So yeah, 30% increase in wages still a lot. Maybe I just know the best people? All I know is oil industry jobs will propel you into a higher income bracket faster than conventional jobs. Which is my point. Thanks for your time.
It’s nonsense propaganda by the oil industry that gets picked up by famous rubes like Mike Rowe, who then spread it to their followers so they can pretend that the minuscule liberal arts education some Americans get must-needs be opposed to working in the trades. Then recruiters barely have to do anything but ignore the “yes”s on the “Have you ever taken any illegal drugs” questions, while the gullible undereducated masses file into to have their bodies destroyed by an industry that does not give one shit about them, and pays a salary that proves that callousness, rather than being some fantasy bonanza. It’s almost the EXACT same tactics used by Army recruiters, actually, except the oil industry is willing to ruin old people’s lives, too.
Meanwhile, plumbers in Europe can have a cogent conversation about politics, art, and food culture in multiple languages without going to college, have a good salary even as apprentices on top of the there-standard social safety nets. Only in America do we have this perennial mass-movement to prove education useless and make people unable (and even obstinately unwilling) to distinguish marketing from truth.
Your random attack on the artistic and cultural interests of American plumbers seems beneath you. Have you tried to engage your plumber in conversation in French and German regarding Brexit, Proust, and the relative merits of kale? I’m betting not.
as long as they can come up with clean urine—finding CDL holders who don’t do drugs is a major challenge.
Yeah, I don’t think his job is a middle class job. Granted he works for Burns, but still…
It’s unlikely that the fact that he has no clue that he’s doing has gone unnoticed – at least by Smithers. That he still has his job may be because he’s a lot cheaper than someone actually competent.
Yes, can confirm. I guarantee that the bad habits and shady things you think you’ve gotten away with at work, somebody noticed and remembers, or at least has a pretty good idea. Also, starting to identify too much with Smithers was part of the reason I left my management job – you think yours is thankless.
As punishment for your desertion, it’s company policy to give you the plague.
“Safety? But sir! If truth be known, I actually caused more accidents around here than any other employee, including a few doozies no one ever found out about.”https://comb.io/BUhyxr
If he’s an incompetent inspector, he might be more valuable to the company by not forcing expensive upgrades than a competent one, so he might be making more money as a result.I’m not saying he’s corrupt, just saying he might be getting paid a lot, and may not know that he is or why.
After Mr. Smithers, Homer has the next highest seniority (per the Hank Scorpio episode). He should be making a great salary.
Seems according to the paystub shown in the Bear Patrol episode, he makes 11.99 an hour or 24,939.2 a year excluding over time.
Not working for Booo-uuurns though.
Well, after 32 years, their mortgage has probably been paid off, he’s had the same car since the 80s, his kids go to public school, he’s never going to have to pay for college tuition, and his only family vacations come in the form of road trips and contest prizes. The real lede here is that Homer is the kind of skinflint who would put Jack Benny to shame. Even at $50k/year, he’s probably got at least a cool mil in his 401k.
I would probably have Lisa down for a full ride scholarship to the college of her choice.
…and a hot plate!
Lisa would definitely go to an Ivy and wouldn’t even need a scholarship, since the Simpsons’ household income is low enough that she’d get a full ride anyway.
Definitely not Vassar…
Or .. Princeton?! *nyarrnyarr*
She could get a scholarship on her saxophone alone.
Sure, Lisa SEEMS smart, but it’s been over 25 years and she hasn’t even completed high school. There’s something going on if she’s been held back that many times.
Even if that’s true, that covers tuition, not living expenses. And what about Maggie? Neither an underachiever like Bart or a genius like Lisa.
You guys, I think the joke is that he’ll never have to pay college tuition because his kids have stayed the same age for the past 33 years.
But what college? I say Brown, heck of a school.
I say Wellesley, then Yale for post-grad. The HRC track.
At this rate she probably won’t even get into Vassar.
I’ve had just about enough of your Vassar bashing!
“I promise my darling daughter can go to the finest school there is….In South Carolina.”“NO! I WILL NOT BE A GAMECOCK!”
I’ll have no more of your Vassar bashing young lady!
Lisa is a Smithie, no question.
i’ve had enough of your vasser bashing.and alsolooks like heaven’s easier to get into than arizona state.
She’s not Brown material.
One out of every twenty-five people was the smartest kid in their second grade class.
LOL! This made me snort when I read it! I was the smartest kid in my second grade class. They all caught up to me about 5th grade. . . still had to go to a state college (We are. . . MARSHALL!) and paying on student loans.
But his kids are going to remain kids indefinitely, which means significant childcare costs for more than the usual 18 years.
Except they seem to have given up on babysitters after the whole Venus de Milo gummy thing.
Patty and Selma and Grandpa remain cheap baby sitting options, and in a pinch, I’m sure Homer would dump his kids on Flanders for an evening.
You mean The Gummy De Milo?Salivates in excess
His union job had great dental benefits.
Well we know one day on the floating timeline, Lisa becomes president and then Bart becomes the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Stay at home wife. No second income, but no excess childcare costs.
But … Marge and Homer will never need assisted living facility care.
I don’t think the childcare costs would be that significant given a union job with health benefits. Sure, he has to feed them, but they’re all perpetually in elementary school–how much can they eat?
I imagine the taxes in Springfield are through the roof to pay for all the ridiculous things the town has done.
The earliest examples are when the residents wasted money on a monorail, a 50 ft. magnifying glass, a popsicle stick skyscraper, and an escalator to nowhere.At one point, they relocated the entire town 5 miles down the road to run away from their trash problem.
After celebrating the decimation of the local pigeon population by Bolivian tree lizards, they had a ridiculously expensive plan to deal with the invasive reptile.
The taxes in Springfield are surprisingly low.
Let the bears pay the bear tax, he pays the homers tax!
Let the bears pay the bear tax; Homer pays the Homer Tax.
Bear patrol tax? I don’t remember that one.
It’s the largest tax increase in history!
Homer makes 11.99 an hour based on that paystub
make the bears pay the bear tax; i pay the homer tax.
$12 an hour for a union-held seat to operate a power plant. Sounds about Springfield.
Over $20 in today’s money.
Still ridiculously low for the responsibility.
Yeah, I mean, obviously this is an in-show joke, but this field regularly hires ex-Navy people who’ve worked on nuclear submarines. At one point Lenny and Carl say they actually have master’s degrees in it.
But the Bear Patrol seems surprisingly well-funded, operating with over 50% of the budget of the municipal government.
I realize this is meaningless as there will always be contradictory evidence in another episode, but I wonder if anyone tried to infer the state Springfield is in by the withholding and state tax rate in his check at that that time. For many geographical references in the show, central or western NY fits.
I just did that myself, looking at income rates in the 1990s. They’re all around 2-4% regardless, so it’s near impossible to get any further than that. The best reference we have is the NYC episode where it’s less than a single day to drive there and less than 7-8 hours I think is implied, so using that it’s likely somewhere between east of Pittsburgh, PA and just west of Columbus, Ohio, Springfield is implied to be somewhere in the midwest more often than not.
My friend had a couple dozen reasons for it being central or Western NY, including the driving time to NYC, the local geography (the gorge), grandpa being from Albany and references to Utica and other places, driving to the coast, being beyond a certain minimal distance from Texas. But Eastern Ohio and Western PA works too
I’m not doubting it could be somewhere in the mid-Atlantic region and the multiple references to upstate NY are hilarious (I think several of the original writers are from there) but they also reference the capital of the state as ‘Capitol City’ in the early seasons and generally Springfield being founded post-Revolutionary war (Jedediah Springfield famously fighting Washington in 1781) and seems to found Springfield sometime in the late 1790s / early 1800s and since he appears to be more a fur trapper or Daniel Boone copy, it squares more with him being further west.But this is like trying to figure out how many Angels can dance on the head of a pin…
There’s one state that has a Springfield and a Shelbyville, and that’s in Indiana.
Even though Springfield is presented as a truly small town from the overview, no buildings above 3 stories, it routinely will add in office towers as needed to represent different aspects of business. The likely reason though for the painfully low taxes is that Burns’ Power Plant is likely inside municipal limits and therefore likely the biggest tax payer in the region. Both financing through real estate tax for the schools (which is a stupid system anyway) and then a low-2% income tax is due to the plant as well with Montgomery Burns showing no other interests except what amounts to a VERY valuable nuclear plant, twin cooling towers and what is likely serving several thousand square miles means the plant (even in poor condition) is likely worth a billion or close to it with profits easily exceeding 100-200M. Take a corporate tax on Burns of just 5-10% and the entire small town’s local government can afford to have low rates.
And property values are probably relatively low. What would probably be a $500k house in, say Denver was likely well under $100k in 1990’s dollars.Also, in one version of the show’s timeline, the Simpsons got their house after Abe gave them his own to sell, so they technically didn’t buy the house with their own money.
I assumed there was a mortgage on the house but significantly smaller and at this point given Bart being 10 was likely paid off?
Unlikely if there was. Mortgages are typically set at 30 years, but sometimes people do 15, but it’s more rare.
You can get a 10-year mortgage if the remaining purchase price is significantly smaller. Abe’s ‘crooked gameshow’ house sells for 60-70% of the sales price of Evergreen Terrace and they may not have a reason to extend the mortgage significantly.
the Escalator to Nowhere paid for itself when they added a high estate tax
Don’t forget flying a stealth bomber for around-the-clock bear patrols.
He’s probably averaging $40+ a night on beer. That’s $1200 a month.
Don’t forget that he never buys shit because he just takes it from Ned.
I believe grandpa sold his house in order for them to buy theirs and homer asked him to live with them as a thank you.“how long before you shipped grandpa off to the old folks home?”“about three weeks”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l4kmCvUIiQ
Plus they all own, what, like 2-3 outfits
“Well, after 32 years, their mortgage has probably been paid off”Just about every working class family I know (my family) refinances several times and the mortgage never ends up getting paid off.
It’s comments/stories/etc like this that make me realize that my childhood was probably way less middle class than I always assumed.
In which direction?
well…
You forgot to mention the benefits he gets from the plant. Likely health insurance and a dental plan!
You missed the part where he cashed in his 401k to buy a Canyonero.
Nah, I’m sure at some point the union gave up the 401K plan for an extra vending machine in sector 7G.
I don’t know, they strike me as people who refinance and perpetually borrow against the house.
The median home value in 1996 was about $110,000. This year, it is about $300,000. The Simpsons have $200k in equity in their paid-for home. As a union worker, he has health benefits and retirement benefits (BTW, he would likely have those benefit as a non-union worker, especially in the energy industry—less than 5% of all private workers are unionized but more than 60% of all private workers have health and retirement benefits).If Homer contributed to his 401(k), he almost certainly has assets of roughly $1 million. If his spending has stayed in check, he’s in pretty good shape. Never buying a new car alone has saved him some serious coin. Having kids that never leave elementary school helps too!
I’m not sure if this helps or hurts the argument in regard to attainability, but the Simpsons don’t live “in a suburb”. They live in Springfield, a city large enough to have a university and several museums.
And a monorail.
And a never-ending tire-fire.
and a Bordello
It’s not a bordello, it’s a burlesque theatre.
No! The burlesque house. So just keep your mouth shut!
So compare costs to Cleveland?
That’s to keep the appraisals down, I’m sure
And an escalator to nowher… woahahah!
And a never-ending tire-fire……not to mention chastity, abstinence, and a flavorless mush called rootmarm.
monorail
and possibly high property taxes.
Don’t forget the bear patrol tax.
(actually from the mentioned episode)
Which means his house is worth at least 1.2 mil in 2020. Exurbs tack on another 200K for every room.
1.2M is cheap for 2020. I’ve seen parking spaces go for that much.
Maybe in California that house would be $1.2 mil. In Midwest or Heartland, not so much. I’m living in a 3800 sq.ft. suburbian house in the Kansas City area. We bought our house for $260k, and it’s worth $300k market price.
I’d say small city, so they still have a suburban neighborhood setting, but Springfield also has literally everything they’d need, including a desert 3 times the size of Texas
And a mountain range with a ski resort and an unclimbable mountain peak, a coastline with a beach, a harbor, a lighthouse and a fishing industry, a tony island community, farmland, a recreational lake, and a National Park-level forest. I may have left something out.
Homer lived across the street from TWO former presidents. How bad a neighborhood can it be?
And big enough to have suburbs. I’d argue Evergreen Terrace definitively is in a suburb of Springfield, one that is technically part of the city, though.
It’s a single-family housing neighborhood, but as shown in the opening credits, it is located just off downtown Springfield, which Bart passes through on his way home from school, which he can do on his skateboard, so it is probably less than a mile.
Cities have residential neighborhoods; that doesn’t make them suburbs.
They still live in the suburbs though, they don’t live in the middle of town.
I would say that they live in the suburbs of the city of Springfield
And a sea port somehow.
Yarr, I hate the sea, and everything in it!
A suburb (or suburban area or suburbia) is a mixed-use or residential area, existing either as part of a city or urban area or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburb
They have THREE universities, by my count:Springfield U (the Nittany Tide)Springfield A&M (founded by a cow)Springfield Heights Institute of Technology (commonly known by its acronym)
Yes, but their only sports team is a minor league baseball team, so they arent living in a “top 30 metropolitan” in america
That’s got the look of a town of ~15-30,000 people
that is IMPRESSIVELY nerdy
… and a tire fire.
And its own nuclear power plant.Not to mention two area codes.
And a gorge and a nuclear power plant. The perfect filming location.
The secret is to not have any kids or get married, so you can keep all your money for yourself like the selfish person you want to be.
I agree with you on the not having kids part, but pooling your resources as a couple is so much better than being single. I felt way more secure financially once I got married and added that second income to my household. Now that we both have moderately better jobs and still no kids, we’re expecting Robin Leach to show up.
Are you better off when she leaves you and takes half of it? Add lawyer fees on top of that and you were probably better off single.
That’s pretty dark for a Friday, man. Though I suppose it’s month 12.
It’s reality. The solution, marry someone who makes significantly more. While unlikely if you are a man, there’s still a chance.
It’s not reality for everyone. The divorce rate has actually dropped in recent years and is lower in younger generations who tend to wait later to get married than it was for boomers. It still happens of course, but it’s not a certainty by any means.
If you don’t have kids, the chances of divorce are much lower. Self reported levels of happiness are also higher for those who choose not to have kids.
I figured out a long time ago that breeding was for suckers.
So what you’re saying is that instead of having 3 kids and no money you should instead aim for having 3 money and no kids?
yes
As someone who currently has 5 kids and two dogs – yes.
yes
This is the comment of the day, easily
Not having kids was a key part, probably THE key part, of my early retirement plan.
“was”
You latter-day Philip Larkin, you.
“I’ll keep it short and sweet: family, religion, friendship – these are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.”-Charles Montgomery Burns
Ok on the kids thing for sure. But doubling each others income was pretty sweet.
I’m selfish for not wanting kids?
The first two million is the hard part.
Coincidentally, 1996 was the last time Homer could reliably seen at work.Of course, the Season 11 finale “Behind the Laughter” revealed the family lived in Kentucky, so maybe their money goes further there? Maybe Ned Flanders is actually Rand Paul, the neighbor we all would like to tackle over a yard dispute.
“And what do you have to show for your lifetime of sloth and ignorance? Everything! A dream house, two cars, a beautiful wife, a son who owns a factory, fancy clothes, and lobsters for dinner!”— Some dead guy.
I always thought it was odd he lived in that dream house, with a beautiful wife, a son who owns a factory and lobster for dinner.. Meanwhile I live in a single room over a bowling alley and under another bowling alley.
Change the channel, Marge.
That’s our Homer!(*Cue laughter)
If only Grimes didn’t spend all his money on hookers. He could have afforded a decent apartment with his nuclear power plant salary.
RIP Grimey
As he liked to be called…
Nuculer. It’s pronounced Nuculer.
It’s pronounced nucular.
Homer Simpson is exactly what’s wrong with America: he coasts through life without a care in the world, while other people have to pick up the slack. People like me. He’s a fraud. A total fraud. It was nice meeting you.
Shut up, Grimey.
fantastic username, thanks for the smile.
We elected one of those deadweight sponges our president. It did not go well.
Grimes should stop buying so much avocado toast.
But you get to call yourself the Kingpin!
I only found out recently this episode was intended to be a Libertarian rant.
First I am hearing of it. Was it written by Swartzwelder?Edit: Indeed it was. Yep. That fits.
Except that in the real world, a nuclear plant operator would be making $150k plus these days – assuming you can get the job with nuke plants closing.
The “American Dream” is not dead. I look at a LOT of the current 20 and 30 somethings that want to make a career out of Home Depot, Wal Mart and McDonalds instead of getting viable marketable degrees to get you into skilled professions and industries.
Get off the couch, apply oneself, and the rest will generally take care of itself with a modest degree of discipline.
Best. Episode. EVER!
best episode ever!
Oh, Grimey.
Are you trying to say you’ve never been to space?
Yeah but now you’re dating Elon Musk, so who really won?
He also won 1st prize in the Children’s Power Plant Model contest.
Wowww
A generation of Frank Grimeses.
For a second I thought the headline read “American Dad is dead.” Don’t scare me like that!
American Dad is remarkably resilient and consistent, remaining hilarious after the better part of 20 years on the air.
Its taken a hard swerve into the truly surreal, sometimes nightmarish, pure ridiculous side of humor and I love every minute of it.
It’s a real good show for seeing writers just do whatever the hell they want with seemingly nobody that’ll actually strike down an idea
I had no idea there were new episodes of American Dad. Staggered. I have so much to catch up on.
There is a new character introduced named Rogu and I was very confused when Baby Yodas name was revealed because it’s so similar to the name of a homunculus on a dumb cartoon show.
It’s got the syndication/cable immortality that King of the Hill and Futurama should also have had
Think of all the money he saved not having to pay for Lisa’s braces…….
All thanks to that dental plan!
DENTAL PLAN!
Lisa needs braces!
DENTAL PLAN!
Lisa needs braces!
Iron helps us play.
Hello, Joe.
DENTAL PLAN!
Lisa needs braces!
DENTAL PLAN!
Lisa needs braces!
*drops pencil in crack* Bullseye!
I’ve been hearing “DENTAL PLAN” in my head for weeks since I found out that my wife and I’s entire tax return AND the next stimulus payment will be going to pay for her necessary dental work instead of y’know, savings (ha!).
This is the best comment of the thread.
They seem to be resting an awful lot of this on that one paycheck in that one episode when the more relevant approach might have been to figure out what nuclear technicians actually make today, which I’m guessing is quite a bit more than $50,000.
Also, $50,000 a year is not a lot of money for a family of five. If we went by that paycheck and the annual sum surmised, $25,000 in 1996 would mean they were struggling more than was depicted. I sure hope somebody got fired for that blunder.
Springfield aint San Francisco or NYC. The cost of living there is so low to where you can live comfortably at 50k even with three kids.
Springfield is loosely based on Eugene, OR, where $50k a year is still not a lot.
as long as you don’t shop at Apu’s.
Bingo. I live in Seattle. It’s expensive here. I was once talking to some guys from Cleveland. They couldn’t believe what we paid for our modest home. They said you could literally just about any house in Cleveland for what we paid for a three bedroom in Seattle. The houses there were much less than half the price of a comparable home in Seattle.Of course it isn’t comparable. Cleveland isn’t Seattle.
Why would the cost of living be low? That place has everything.
Just because this is the internet, some international perspective:If you lived in Scandinavia, the land of the oppressively crushing taxes, no handguns and even less Freedom, and you had even just one income of the equivalent of $50k/yr (before taxes!), your life would be total economic bliss. You wouldn’t want for nothing!While you wouldn’t have a life of idle luxury, you could have a really nice big house in a nice part of town, a really nice big car (two cars if you wanted), vacations abroad every year (which would be a paid vacation mind you, to the tune of around 5 weeks yearly, plus plenty of holidays off too.) Schooling for your kids and university would be free, health care for the whole family, free. Paid maternity (and paternity) leave…Goes to show how duped and exploited the average Murricans are by the Richs in general and conservatives in particular. Certainly quite a few Dems doing quite a bit of duping too one might add, there’s blame to go all around no doubt.
This is really the unspoken story here — America used to be a country where you could support a family comfortably on one income, when our economic system was New Deal Capitalism, not that different than European-style Social Democracy. (and given that The Simpsons was originally based around Matt Groening’s childhood, to the point where his parents are named Homer and Marge and his sisters are Lisa and Maggie, it makes sense that the Simpsons’ lifestyle is a vision of a time in America where the middle class was at its peak.Then we elected Reagan. He slashed taxes for the rich, raised taxes on everyone else seven years in a row, and suddenly our economy was based on making people like Mr. Burns richer and not rewarding an honest day’s work. In the 30 years after Reagan, American productivity doubled, and wages went down. We, collectively, produced twice as much wealth and ended up worse off, just so Burns and Smithers could have a money fight the size of the Normandy landing.
A wizard did that
Everyone seems to have forgotten that Homer owns the Denver Broncos.
What a truly hilarious coincidence the very next year had that.
+1
That’s just because they don’t understand football.
So that’s why Jon Elway still has a job?Homer though would have been a lot better owning the the Broncos since that episode, than the Cowboys in terms of Championships. Also from someone I know in the Denver sports media, Elway actually is good at his job.
and his brother his loaded.
It’s much less than I figured, but $65,000. It would be hard to not have a wife working and 3 kids, but not impossible. Especially since Abe sold his house to pay off a huge chunk of the mortgage, before they dumped him in a home. Peter Griffin’s financial situation makes even less sense on his low salary alone, but Lois does have a rich dad.
I grew up with a parent working at a nuclear plant. We lived comfortably in a nice suburban house, and my mother didn’t work for a good chunk of my childhood. When she did return to work, it is because my Mom actually seems to like working rather than a need to make money. My Dad wasn’t the CEO or anything. He started off as a union worker, moved into management along the way.
I grew up a while ago though, and my Dad is retired at this point, but the bottom line is the plant was (and still is) one of the few places in a Rust Belt community that still has good paying union jobs. While growing up, I saw friend’s parents and neighbors lose their blue collar union jobs as the plants closed up shop and moved somewhere else.Now, Monty Burns probably wasn’t paying top wages and Homer probably wasn’t anywhere near the top of the pay scale, but I’d bet he made plenty to pay for a house in Springfield (portrayed as a working class town), have one beat up car, and keep food on the table…assuming he didn’t blow his paycheck on something stupid that week.
If anything isn’t realistic, it would be managing to pay for Abe’s retirement community, but I can’t remember if Homer was paying for that or not.
two cars homer drove the pink pile of junk but marges red station wagon seemed to be in reasonably good kit
Yes. But you’re getting caught on the technicalities and missing the point.There’s the assumption that Homer and the Simpson family are “average.” That they represent a comfortable yet attainable lifestyle.
But while Home went from $25k a year (below the national average of $35k) to $50k, the “average man” person he’s meant to represent went from $35k to… $46k and the lifestyle presented has become even more expensive. The Simpsons went from a slightly-below-average middle class family to an above-average well-off family who still shouldn’t be able to afford the lifestyle they have without risking serious debt from medical expenses and college tuition.
And to look at what a typical union pay schedule does. Even assuming moving up steps and grades at an extremely slow rate, union seniority would probably have his salary at the very least tripled in 32 years.
I do not know how this relates to America but:Average weekly ordinary time earnings in Australia:$665.80 = $37,740p.a.Homer got a below average wage in 1996. A bank would not have given him a loan in Australia.
The place that hires nuclear technicians with only a high school degree (and later he does some college but never beyond undergrad). The place with hiring policies like that probably pays well below industry average.
Homer has held several side jobs though.
What? Working more gets you more money? Craaaaa-zy.
Money can be exchanged for goods and services. Woohoo!
Just a few.
That Santa gig cost him money though.
Springfield is in the flyover part of the US. His house might cost $120K and as a union worker he has pension medical insurance and paid vacation time benefits on top of his salary.
But show lampshaded this itself back when the episodes were reliably good – Frank Grimes’ freakout at their healthy lifestyle, “I stretch your father’s meatloaf with sawdust”, and so forth.
This article’s 24 years late. From 1997:
There was a really good dissection of this episode and its meaning for the American Dream
I lost interest when the 41 minute video launched with a discussion of nanometers. TL;DR?
The Simpsons was once a realistic and unpolished family, which bucked the trend of squeaky clean and fake families in the 80’s. Homer started off somewhat like Grimes, he envied Flanders’ success and beloved status. As time went on Homer got more cartoonish, and the show itself had become an institution and part of the very thing they once sought to destroy. This episode marked a peak in creativity and making a profound statement, and as a result part of the audience began to turn on Homer, resenting his warped version of the American Dream, which has ironically become more realistic than the cult of work paying off. With Season 9 the show started marching towards mediocrity. We stopped questioning why they were yellow, they just were.
It took some viewers 9 seasons to stop asking why they were yellow?
No, he was saying people questioned it quite a bit at first, but as time went on the show became so mainstream that it just was. Nobody asked anymore
“This episode marked a peak in creativity and making a profound statement, and as a result part of the audience began to turn on Homer, resenting his warped version of the American Dream”
People lost interest in the show because it wasn’t funny anymore. The jokes were tired, the characters became caricatures of themselves, and they ran of out believable stories to tell. Nobody “turned on” Homer due to anything related to the American dream. Certainly a more interesting take, but not based on reality at all.
Yeah, I don’t know if it was “turned on him” more that they just got annoyed at him getting dumber and dumber. Even by season 5 or so people noticed how much Bart was no longer the focus and how over the top and “jerkass” Homer got. I still think 5-8 was the peak of the show despite Homer being really stupid, there still was heart there. It was during the Scully era where the show got mean spirited for a while. Now it’s a bit TOO safe, never awful but completely forgettable. At least when Family Guy is bad I remember it. there have been a few gems this season but it doesn’t justify keeping the show going. If the show must continue they should age the kids, or cut the episode count down to the 10 or so good ideas they have per year.
season 8 is my favorite.
I clicked on the vid outta curiosity. Stayed for 41 min. Great watch, thanks!
Do you want to see my Grammy? Cracks me up every time!
best episode ever
They got the house for pretty cheap, with the down payment from Abe Simpson selling his place (and of course they quickly dumped him into a cheap retirement home). If his mortgage is low, then I could believe that he could sort-of afford the lifestyle he’s got – especially since it’s pretty often a plot point that the Simpsons are short on money and cutting corners, even when Homer doesn’t actually make that much less than Flanders pre-Left Hand Store.
They had actually paid of the mortgage and all their other debts before Maggie was born. While they probably have put on debt since then their outgoings for housing might not be that high.
Stop chasing other people’s cookie cut idea of happiness. Didn’t you watch Edward Scissorhands?
As a matter of fact, no!
Try Pleasantville then.
And we’re supposed to believe Edward can afford that giant castle on a hairdressers’ salary?
Rent control is awesome.
Id say do the Bundy Family from Married with Children, but I fear the show might trigger you to the point of suicide.
Adding credence to the theory that Homer is secretly a millionaire from all his crazy jobs through out the decades.
Marge 100% hid a bunch of that money. In her hair naturally
I don’t think anything about Marge’s hair can be described with “naturally”.
He owns the Denver Broncos. With NFL profit sharing equally distributed among each ownership group, Home is gonna be fine.
Astronauting probably pays pretty good, esp with free room/board.
Okay, this triggered me. Who do I sue?
This is… not correct. I’ve taught nuclear energy at a nuclear power plant for thirteen years. The Homers/Lennys/Karls make triple that. And much more with overtime. $150k is probably average l… and more likely $170k-180k. And that’s not just after 30 years on the books; you’re making close to that as soon as you pass your NRC exam and get your license.The idea that non-college labor pay and benefits has not kept up with rising costs is true and an important issue, but, man, nuclear power is NOT the industry to look at to demonstrate your point. Lotta money in nuclear power.
In reality, Homer’s job would be a specialized, reasonably highly-paid position, reflecting the educational attainment and skills necessary — he’d be making much more than the average American.
In reality he wouldn’t have that job because he does not have the education or skills for it. Also, he’s quit several times, so he’s not making as much as someone who had been working the job continuously for 30 years.
Depends on where he lives. Skilled jobs like that, in the midwest (probably where the simpsons live), would be on the low end of average. Which is about where he’s at.
Sure, but if he was living in a region with lower than average cost of living, that wouldn’t affect what sort of house he could afford, etc.
A house like his in the midwest would be around 200k. A house like his on the coast would be 750k. It absolutely would.
That’s what I mean. If his salary was lower in the midwest, his cost of living would be too; he might even come out ahead.
They dont discuss exactly how much he makes, or even what state they live in. Without knowing either of those its hard to say whats attainable or not. But yeah, the American dream has been dead for a long time.
My opinion is that they have always been upper middle class, and he would be making 100k-ish nowadays. Which is enough for their lifestyle in a lot of the country.
It is less realistic in some ways though. Assuming Homer got his job a few years before the kids were born then it would now be somewhere around 2005. And in 2005 a person with his qualifications could not have gotten a job like that. But in the late 70s it might have been possible.
As a nuclear safety technician though he should be making pretty decent money, it’s not like he’s a retail drone like he should be. On average they make $65,000 a year. Still probably can’t afford a house that big, especially on what I assume is the West Coast
He’s also quit his job there on a number of occasions, so he’s not being paid as if he’s worked there non-stop for 30 years.
I thought the American Dream was to kill your vampire boss?
Same with Al Bundy in Married With Children. His lifestyle is totally and completely unrealistic today.
Homer’s dad sold his house to buy his son a home when Lisa was born, so let’s not pretend Homer’s mortgage is eating into his paycheck too much.
Assuming he bought the house back in 89 (or earlier) and has lived in it for 30 years – he’d pretty much have paid off the mortgage by now. There’s no childcare costs as Marge stays at home, the kids go to a public school so no fees.
Mr. Simpson, this is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since my suit against the film “The NeverEnding Story”.
and don’t forget…lisa needs braces!
I think the Simpsons’ lifestyle reflecting the unattainable American Dream was satirical from the beginning. The first episode points out that they’re poor, despite living in a big house in a nice neighborhood, with Homer having a decent job.
they were meant to embody most Americans’ notions of typical suburban
family: the dad with a working class job, the homemaker wife, three
kids, a cat, a dog—the usual.
this is pretty much what my family was like when I was growing up. only difference is both my parents had jobs.
You have to also remember that Homer doesn’t have any knowledge or formation for his current nuclear power plant job. He went from a bowling alley employee this this job. So someone like him would probably be working on minimum wage in a bowling alley unless you manage the sneak your way in a job you have no idea how to do.
Technicaly he went from the bowling alley to entry level nuclear technician to nuclear safety inspector. He only became the plant’s safety inspector to appease an angry mob concerned about conditions at the plant, albeit conditions Homer was often responsible for.
Oh, and that episode featuring Homer’s paycheck? It’s from Season 7’s “Much Apu About Nothing,” so at least showrunners have caught up with the times in other aspects…sort of.Wow, I literally just watched that episode yesterday. The main plot is about illegal immigration and…man, aside from the aspect ratio, I could swear that episode was made today.
i mean this is 100% today.
“But Main Street’s still all cracked and broken!!”
“Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken!!”
MONORAAAAAAAIL,
MONORAAAAAAAIL,
MONORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL!
🎼🎶🎵🎶
Maybe that’s Springfield, MA, where the 2019 individual median income was $21,824. So making $50k/year is royalty in comparison.
For anyone curious, here’s the paycheck they reference. Actual net pay comes out to less than $20k a year.
If we talked about income in terms of net pay, that would be relevant, but we don’t.
*yawn*You are wrong, but nice try.
This article highlights how meaningless the term ‘middle class’ is. Any world view that hinges on fixing a definition to it will inevitably be contradictory to the point of incoherence.Remove ‘middle class’ from your vocabulary.
America gives the poor things for free and the rich don’t feel the cost of living luxuriously… the folks in the middle are the ones scraping the most.If you want an easy life and don’t care about nice things, just go broke: the system is set up to only help you then, but not much before.
What??? A cartoon comedy is unrealistic? The devil, you say! Thanks for writing this brave stance and removing the scales from our eyes!!!Also, it’s been about *checks watch* 8 seconds since the AV Club declared the Simpsons garbage. I was getting worried about you folks.
A big thing everyone is neglecting is how he’s always (at least back when it was watchable) failing upwards. Winning contests left and right, he’s been an astronaut, a country music producer, inventor, etc etc. Not to mention anything else the schemes and plans the rest of the family pulls in on the side. Even if he’s only making $50k per year there’s plenty of other income from those side gigs which could sustain them just fine.The one general fact people tend to ignore…is this show is meant to be satire.
Only the Burns and hillbillies lifestyles are conceivable now.
sneed
And the magas will blame the libtards for this and the liberals will blame tax breaks and trickle down economics for this.
I mean, that last one is actually true, so…
So… your theory is that nothing caused this? Intriguing.
I think is was corporate greed, fictional trickle down economics and 40 years of anti union hatred.
I see. You phrased it like you thought both perspectives were wrong.
I have seen over 40+ years people that are suffering the most be angry at the wrong people. The poor blaming other poor people for thier lot in life has gotten worse since the Carter presidency.
Simpsons acknowledged it already.How in the world can you afford to live in a house like this, Simpson?
I don’t know, don’t ask me how the economy works.
So unattainable that I’m surrounded by people that live pretty much exactly the Simpson’s lifestyle. Perhaps you need to get out of whatever homeless-infected shithole you live in.Also, The Atlantic has a rather nebulous and hostile relationship with reality.
fuck
Someone already did this math a long time ago.Even in the nineties Homer Simpson would have had to have been a millionaire income wise to pay for the nominal value of all of the props used in the show.
Union job. His salary would now be much more than it was in 1989. Housing in middle America is not that expensive. $300K would easily buy that house in many places, especially if it was older.
I think part of the problem is that Matt Groening based the family off of his own Boomer upbringing nostalgia, which makes it even more of an anachronism than just the show’s age.
Shit, I’d kill for 25k a year alone at this point, I’d be happy just being able to see the poverty line without binoculars, let alone clearing the hump. (I doubt there are many teens reading AVC comments, but if there are, FFS, don’t drop out of high school if you can help it, I’m almost 35 and still paying for that mistake)
Nuclear plant safety inspectors make $70K.
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Nuclear-Safety-Inspector-Salary
I figured Homer and Marge got money from family when they got married. And homer is making alright money depending on what state they live in. As of Mar 3, 2021, the average annual pay for a Nuclear Safety Inspector in the United States is $67,900 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $32.64 an hour. And they really never bought new cars since the beginning except for the SUV that Vanished after a episode.The area of the home must be a good area now with ex-presidents moving in.
The Canyonaro? I remember the song as if it were yesterday…Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five..Canyonero! Canyonero!Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down,
It’s the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown!Canyonero! (Yah!) Canyonero!
[Krusty:] Hey HeyThe Federal Highway commission has ruled the
Canyonero unsafe for highway or city driving.Canyonero!12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!Canyonero! Canyonero!Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!Canyonero! Canyonero! (Yah!)She blinds everybody with her super high beams,
She’s a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine!Canyonero!-oh woah, Canyonero! (Yah!)Drive Canyonero!Woah Canyonero!Woah
The fires are a matter for the courts
After Wandavision wrapped-up I decided to go back and watch some episodes of Malcolm in the Middle (an episode of Wandavision emulated it). I remember watching the show when it was new, and thinking Malcolm’s family lived in a real dump, but after watching a few episodes last week, I’ve changed my mind; the Wilkersons live in a palace. They have a 3,000+ square foot house, with a detached garage, huge back yard, in a quiet, suburban Californian neighborhood. I’m jealous.If they remade Malcolm in the Middle today, Hal & Lois wouldn’t be able to afford to have children, and they would be lucky to afford a 1 bedroom apartment above a Dildopolis.
Hell, Mike Brady was carrying 6 kids, one wife, a dog and a maid in a house he designed and had built in sunny California. Now, he was providing plans to the likes to Joe Namath and Don Drysdale, but no way Carol isn’t holding down a job and Alice is keeping an eye on all those kids by herself in this day and age.
Here’s what’s always bugged me about the Simpsons. Homer got Marge pregnant while they were in Highschool. So they’re 18 then, Bart is 10 so Homer and Marge are at oldest 29.
They’ve always played fast and loose with this chronology, but Homer and Marge didn’t even start dating until after high school — their first kiss was after the senior prom. But Homer’s supposed to be in his late 30s, and Bart’s 10… which means they dated for 10 years and then had a shotgun wedding after Marge got pregnant? It doesn’t really make any sense, but then again this is a show where Lisa’s been in the 2nd grade for 30 years and yet once passed for a college student at age 8, so I’m not sure they’re laser-focused on continuity.
They also once established that Lisa was born in 1983. So she’s almost 40 now… Shit… I’m almost 40…
I watched the episode last night, randomly. Homer was a teenager in the 90s. They didn’t even bother with the continuity metagag this time.
You’re supposed to say “mid-to-late 30’s.” -Fellow Mid-to-Late 30’s Person
Any time you see something like that a wizard did it.
I recently read that Hank Hill is supposed to be 34. A year younger than myself. That blows my got-dang mind.
At least they aged over the course of the show, though not consistently. It’s established that the main four plus Peggy and Nancy were all in high school at the same time (though Peggy went to East Arlen), yet Nancy definitely has her 40th birthday during the run of the show- meaning Hank et all are likely at least in their 40s by the end.Granted, Bobby stopped aging after his 13th birthday in the fifth season and LuAnn went from 18 to 21 at some point so who knows?
34?! maybe 43 but he’s definitely not in his mid 30’s.
Admittedly, this was taken from a “sure, what the hell” viewing of one of those ‘100 Facts about..’ on YouTube. Another commenter explained it better, though: All of the main adult characters (the main four and the two wives) were in highschool at the same time, and at one point Dale’s wife celebrates her 40th (not sure which season), in a show where the characters do age to some degree. I agree, though, completely with your statement.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
That ain’t right!
I’ve wanted the Simpsons to start aging in real time since 98, it’s the only way I see the series ending gracefully, and it actually gives fuel for new stories with the characters.
So you’re comparing a salary from a check in a cartoon with real world costs? The mind boggles.I mean, don’t look it up and see that the median wage is $92,000.
Another brave man once pointed out these flaws in Homer’s seemingly normal life. His name was Frank Grimes. Or “Grimey” as he liked to be called.
I need to read the Atlantic article, but I wonder if they’re factoring in the fact that Homer basically just took over the house from his father, he didn’t buy it. Flashbacks show him living there when we was still a kid or teen. So $50k a year with no mortgage at all changes the calculus. On the other hand, the cost of keeping Grandpa in a retirement home is likely very significant, even if it is a crappy home.Also, famously, Springfield is not located in any specific state, but most Simpons fans know that Springfield is pretty heavily inspired by Portland Oregon, with many of the supporting cast named after streets in the city. I just looked up average family income in Oregon, and it is over $80,000. So Homer making only $50k as the sole breadwinner does put them lower down the scale, even accounting for their house being paid off.
The flip side to this is I grew up in the 80’s and over the last 4 decades we’ve not only allowed this to happen through inaction, some of us have championed the people like McConnell and Trump that are the architects of the world we live in. The Occupy movement was the perfect example. Protests, camping out, lots of speeches and articles, and then what? Protesting does nothing. If you don’t like our situation, run for office or vigorously support people that do that will support you. If democracy in America dies and we become the Russian style autocracy we are headed towards being, then look in the mirror for someone to blame. Being aware of issues and not actively doing something about them makes you complicit with the perpetrators of those awful things. The middle class didn’t die because of a secret cabal of evil people, it died because people are dumb and lazy and what we are is a species has been laid bare over the last year+. We’re a species that are not only unwilling to protect ourselves during a pandemic when we have all the information necessary to do so, we violently react to the measures it would take to combat it. We’re dumb af and every right we lost wasn’t taken, it was given away with a smile. The universe will be a better place when we go extinct and because we’re so damn stupid, that’s a reality that likely isn’t that far off as we microwave our planet out of existence over the next century, if that long. Have a lovely day.
In case you forgot, Homer received a gift from Hank Scorpio for the invaluable service he provided on Project Arcturus. As a thank you, Scorpio gave Homer the Denver Broncos for a hilarious closer.Now the Denver Broncos are certainly not as valuable as the Dallas Cowboys, but they are profitable. And since we’ve never seen Homer SELL the Broncos, it serves to explain all the fuck you money Homer must have to keep changing jobs every week while easily covering the mortgage.
Teevee has done this as long as I can remember, and I’m 66 years old. All the ‘60s/’70s sitcom “average families” had two-story houses on spacious suburban lawns. Remember Marlo Thomas’s character’s apartment in That Girl? (Of course you don’t.) An entry-level secretary was supposed to be able to afford a place like that in New York City!This was one of the purposes of broadcast teevee, to make viewers expect to own stuff that was really out of their budgets. Broadcast teevee is a business, where the formula is “give the paying customers what they want and they’ll give you money.” What a lot of teevee watchers didn’t realize was that they were not the customers, they got the shows for free; the advertisers were the customers.
Me and my family have literally lived this lifestyle for years. It is absolutely obtainable. You have to work hard for it but it’s not impossible.
Not when the top 1% go from 1.7 trillion dollars in wealth last March to 4 trillion today.
Hot take: women in the workplace has been a force to keep salaries low.
But they don’t have to spend anything on clothing for the kids as they never grow
Maybe we should cancel the Simpsons? A show sprout up out of Portland that does nothing but fuel an fairytale ideology of what life should look like in what we call America. Their depiction of the United States lifestyle is appalling with their unobtainable “realities”. We should be lifting up and promoting more communal and free lifestyle choices with what comes across our money-grubbing capitalist airwaves.(Note: This comment has been written with love and sarcasm.)
Did he ask himself: “Well….how did I get here?”
How cute the writer thinks 1989 was a quaint time when women didn’t have to work to support a blue collar husband with three children and a house payment … I suppose Grimey would say if he were alive to read this.
Let’s be completely honest: the “American dream” was an established empty promise even when the show premiered, and that was part of the joke — a sardonic, biting satire lampooning the way America was desperately blowing on the last embers of post-war optimism that the Reagan era had briefly rekindled. Recall also that this show was born out of a reworking of basic statement of Matt Groening’s earlier creation, “Life In Hell”: society as we have imagined it is doomed.Today, America has simply reached the point where the message is now blatant fact, and the joke is played out. If that is not a sound argument to finally end The Simpsons, I dont know what could be.
This ignores all the various side jobs that Homer has had which is how he can afford everything.
Sure there is the paycheck as a form of evidence. But I live near Hanford, and I can tell you that he would be making well over $100k a year.Also, we have houses like theirs all over for under $200k, not everywhere is San Francisco or New York.
This is why Frank Grimes is one of my favorite characters. He gets how weird it is that Homer lives how he does.
Reminds me of realizing just how great Al Bundy actually had it in Married With Children. Full-size home with full basement based on one income from a “shitty” job that featured full benefits, two healthy kids with aspirations of some sort, and an attractive wife that wanted romance.
The Simpsons’ house isn’t as strange to me as the Bundys’. No way Al makes even as much as Homer, and Peg is way less helpful than Marge, who took a few jobs of her own.
It depends on your are and the kind of home you have. For example, I live in the county just outside of a mid-size college town in a home built in the 1940s. I’ve done a lot of repair work, it’s an old home, and it still has a lot of problems. When I got married I was making less than 25k a year, but I have a (municipal) government job so good insurance and actual cost-of-living wages. Now, 13 years later, I make about 40k and I’ve raised a family of 6 on just my income; wife and 4 kids. It may not be the kind of life wealthier middle class people think of; there’s no chance I can buy each of my kids a car or pay their way through school, but we’ve had a pretty good life so far. I miss a lot of it, due to the nature of my job, but I’ve provided a life where my kids have a stable environment and a mom who can choose to stay home with them. Other than what remains on my mortgage, we don’t even have debt. Granted, not everyone can find a fixer-upper to live in in their particular area, and I know full well that jobs in the Capitalist world means almost no raises so I understand that I am lucky, but the Simpsons are still believable.
He is a Grammy winning musician who owns the Denver Broncos so that probably brings in some money. He won the Winter Olympics so probably some endorsement deals there. All people have to do are those simple things.
Point taken, but so many sitcom characters live comfortably beyond their means that it’s become a trope.
Whenever people talk about tv characters with too nice a lifestyle given what they earn, I think the most unrealistic part is TV is this magical world where people have neighbours of wildly different incomes/classes. Like in Cougar Town, where a realtor divorced from a country club golf pro lives next door to a financial planner and corporate lawyer. And next door to a neurosurgeon. And then a baker marries an aspiring photographer who just graduated college and they buy a house on the same cul de sac. Or the Big Bang Theory. Two physics profs need to share an apartment. The chain restaurant waitress lives across from them, alone. Another prof lives with his mother. Or The Middle. I suppose you can handwave that in a small enough town the working class family with constant money problems live next door to the Donohues. King of the Hill. How do the Hills earn the same as the Souphanousinphones? Why would the Souphanousinphones even want to live in a place where Connie’s in the same school district as Bobby?
Homer could never afford that house, that was the joke. He made $40 a week one time and later he lost $1100 in FunMoney. He’s a moron and you are missing the point on purpose?
Homer could never afford that house, that was the joke. He made $40 a week one time and later he lost $1100 in FunMoney. He’s a moron and you are missing the point on purpose?
Homer could never afford that house, that was the joke. He made $40 a week one time and later he lost $1100 in FunMoney. He’s a moron and you are missing the point on purpose?
He’s a nuclear power plant technician, which is IRL a white collar, degree-required job that paid alot more than 25k/yr in the 90s, and continues to pay well today.The show actually did an episode on this, where they explain away Homer being massively under-qualified, but still employed….
I make around $55k, live in a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath, in a residential area. It all depends on where you live and what you expect in life.In addition, the homes we live in are twice as large as homes we lived in the 1950s, we own several cars now, have multiple televisions, expect more from modern medicine than we use to and have allowed school loans to skyrocket educational cost.
House prices are stupid right now. A suburban starter home @ $1,200,000 will cost you $5,500/mo over 30 years. Following the 28% rule you need to be making $20,000 / month to be comfortably middle class. A mere $250,000 / year. So if the min wage gets raised to $15 / hr I can make it if I work 45 hours per day and make my own coffee at home.
I sometimes think about how my Grocery Checkout Clerk uncle supported a wife and two daughters—on the Central Coast of California—through the 80s and 90s. They even home-schooled one of their daughters for several years. His wife eventually started working as a school librarian and he retired. They recently sold their house for a big profit and moved to the other side of the country where they bought a new house and a new vehicle outright. Now they’re both retired, financially stable, and living out their days near their younger daughter and her little children.