The life in the Simpsons is no longer attainable
La crise économique transforme-t-elle les Simpson en bourgeois américains ?
En 1989, la famille Simpson représentait la vie de la classe ouvrière américaine : une frange modeste de la population, ayant parfois du mal à joindre les deux bouts. Aujourd'hui, l'existence de la famille la plus connue d'Amérique semble au contraire être un standard enviable pour bien des citoyens. Quel serait le quotidien des Simpson s'ils étaient créés aujourd'hui ?
The most famous dysfunctional family of 1990s television enjoyed, by today’s standards, an almost dreamily secure existence that now seems out of reach for all too many Americans. I refer, of course, to the Simpsons. 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. Bart might have had to find $1,000 for the family to go to England, but he didn’t have to worry that his parents would lose their home. 2. This lifestyle was not fantastical in the slightest—nothing, for example, like the ridiculously large Manhattan apartments in Friends. On the contrary, the Simpsons used to be quite ordinary—they were a lot like my Michigan working-class family in the 1990s.
3. The 1996 episode Much Apu About Nothing shows Homer’s paycheck. He grosses $479.60 per week, making his annual income about $25,000. My parents’ paychecks in the mid-’90s were similar. So were their educational backgrounds. My father had a two-year degree from the local community college, which he paid for while working nights; my mother had no education beyond high school. Until my parents’ divorce, we were a family of three living primarily on my mother’s salary as a physician’s receptionist, a working-class job like Homer’s.
4. By 1990—the year my father turned 36 and my mother 34—they were divorced. And significantly, they were both homeowners—an enormous feat for two newly single people.
5. Neither place was particularly fancy. I’d estimate that the combined square footage of
both roughly equaled that of the Simpsons’ home. Their houses were their only source of debt; my parents have never carried a creditcard balance. Within 10 years, they had both paid off their mortgage.
6. Neither of my parents had much wiggle room in the budget. I remember Christmases that, in hindsight, looked a lot like the one portrayed in the first episode of The Simpsons, which aired in December 1989: handmade decorations, burnedout light bulbs, and only a handful of gifts.
7. Most of my friends and classmates lived the way we did—that is, the way the Simpsons did. Some families had more secure budgets, with room for annual family vacations to Disney World. Others lived closer to the edge. But we all believed that the ends could meet, with just an average amount of hustle.
8. The Simpsons started its 32nd season this past fall. Homer is still the family’s breadwinner. Marge is still a stay-at-home parent, taking point on raising Bart, Lisa, and Maggie and maintaining the family’s suburban home. But their life no longer resembles reality for many American middle-class families.
IN TODAY'S WORLD...
9. Adjusted for inflation, Homer’s 1996 income of $25,000 would be roughly $42,000 today, about 60 percent of the 2019 median U.S. income. But salary aside, the world for someone like Homer Simpson is far less secure. Union membership, which protects wages and benefits for millions of workers in positions like Homer’s, dropped from 14.5 percent in 1996 to 10.3 percent today. With that decline came the loss of income security and many guaranteed benefits, including health insurance and pension plans.
10. The purchasing power of Homer’s paycheck, has shrunk dramatically. The median house costs 2.4 times what it did in the mid-’90s. Health-care expenses for one person are three times what they were 25 years ago. The median tuition for a four-year college is 1.8 times what it was then.
11. 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.
12. Last year, my gross income was about $42,000—the amount Homer would be making today. I wanted to buy a home, but no bank was willing to finance a mortgage. I finally paid off my medical debt. But after taking into account all of my expenses, my adjusted gross income was only $19. I don’t have Bart, Lisa, and Maggie to feed or clothe or buy Christmas presents for. I’m not sure how I’d make it if I did.
13. Someone I follow on Twitter, Erika Chappell, recently encapsulated my feelings about The Simpsons in a tweet: “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 of capitalist American decline I can think of.”
14. For many, a life of constant economic uncertainty—in which some of us are one emergency away from losing everything, no matter how much we work—is normal. Second jobs are no longer for extra cash; they are for survival. It wasn’t always this way. When The Simpsons first aired, few would have predicted that Americans would eventually find the family’s life out of reach. But for too many of us now, it is.
1. by today's standards selon les critères actuels / dreamily ici, idéalement / secure sûr, stable / out of reach hors de portée, inaccessible / all too many bien trop de / high school graduate bachelier / union syndicat / nuclear-power plant centrale nucléaire / skill compétence / to support entretenir, subvenir aux besoins de / appointment rendez-vous, consultation / left over ici, argent restant / single seul, unique / working-class (de la) classe ouvrière / to worry s'inquiéter, craindre.
2. lifestyle mode de vie / not in the slightest pas le moins du monde / ridiculously grotesquement / large grand / quite assez, plutôt.
3. Much Apu About Nothing (VF) J'y suis, j'y reste / paycheck salaire / to gross ici, gagner / income revenu(s) / educational background niveau d'études / community college établissement supérieur américain, le plus souvent public, qui prépare en 2 ans à un "associate degree" / beyond au-delà; ici, après / high school lycée / primarily principalement, essentiellement / physician médecin.
4. to turn ici, atteindre l'âge de / significantly fait révélateur / homeowner propriétaire / feat exploit, prouesse, réussite / single célibataire.
5. fancy extravagant, luxueux / square footage surface en mètres carrés /
roughly approximativement, à peu près / to equal équivaloir à / to carry a credit-card balance avoir des soldes de carte de crédit impayés / to pay, paid, paid off rembourser / mortgage crédit immobilier.
6. wiggle room ici, marge de manoeuvre / in hindsight rétrospectivement, avec le recul / to portray représenter / to air être diffusé / burned-out grillé / a handful of quelques / gift cadeau.
7. classmate camarade de classe / close to the edge ici, dans des conditions précaires (edge bord, limite) / to make, made, made ends meet joindre les deux bouts / average moyen, ordinaire / amount quantité, volume / hustle activité, moyen de gagner sa vie (pas toujours de manière honnête).
8. fall = autumn (GB) automne / still toujours / breadwinner soutien de famille / to take, took, taken point on se charger de / to raise ici, élever / to maintain entretenir / suburban de banlieue (résidentielle) / middle-class de la classe moyenne.
9. aside mis à part / membership adhésion, appartenance / wage salaire / benefit avantage (social) / position poste, emploi / to drop chuter, baisser / loss perte / health insurance assurance maladie, couverture santé / pension plan régime de retraite.
10. purchasing power pouvoir d'achat / to shrink, shrank, shrunk baisser, reculer / dramatically de façon spectaculaire / health-care (de soins de) santé / expense dépense / tuition (frais de) scolarité / college université / then ici, à l'époque, alors.
11. to struggle avoir des difficultés (ici, financières) / to lead, led, led to conduire à, entraîner / rise augmentation / household foyer.
12. gross brut / to be willing to être prêt à, accepter de / to take, took, taken into account tenir compte de / to feed, fed, fed nourrir / to clothe, clothed or clad, clothed or clad habiller; ici, acheter des vêtements pour / present cadeau / to make, made, made it réussir, s’en sortir.
13. to encapsulate ici, traduire, illustrer, exprimer / feeling ressenti / mess chaos / barely à peine / to cling, clung, clung to se cramponner à / in the aftermath of au lendemain de / aspirational ici, attrayant / frankly franchement / on the nose ici, éloquent.
14. emergency (situation d') urgence / no matter peu importe / extra cash revenu complémentaire / to predict prédire / eventually finalement, au bout du compte.