Jim the U+1F9A6 (Otter)
PandoraThis fact is depressing
gulfie official@pandora_parrot and Homer can afford to go to the bar like every day
Bally@pandora_parrot Homer, Barney, Skinner, and Apu are still collecting royalties from the B Sharps. That's why none of them have been evicted.
Rebeca@pandora_parrot know what? I think this is more a case of the writers deciding it's better for the show
It's like the under- (or even un-)employed people in Friends living in large Manhattan apartments. No one thinks it's normal, it's just that a set that realistically depicts a 20 year old waitress in Manhattan's apartment doesn't lend itself to filming a 2-camera sitcom 😜
Piko Starsider 
@pandora_parrot They made this fact into an episode last year (S33E22), inspired by an article in turn inspired by a twitter thread that basically explained this.
Eric VeyNot real life. Homer had a good paying job at a nuclear power plant which he got without military or college education.
Pepperbike@vey981 @pandora_parrot and somehow keeps despite gross incompetence and rank odor.
Sir_Osis_of_LiverIt was reasonable at the time.
Dad owned a house very much like that when the Simpsons first aired.
He started working in 1958 as a clerk right out of high school at a railway company. He worked there for 37 years, retiring at 55 as a regional marketing director, and with a full defined benefit retirement plan.
I'm pretty sure that was also the last house he had a mortgage on. He's had several since.
Penguin@pandora_parrot @ChrisPirillo Not quite true. It was normal to the cartoonists, but not the general public. By 1989 you needed 2 salaries to own a house, and it helped if one of the salaries was from a college-educated person. We lived in Switzerland in late 1980’s, rented our house and by the time we returned in 1990 house prices had soared. The homeowners with 1 blue-collar worker was more like 1969.
Johanna's Garden@pandora_parrot Pay was a bit higher working within nuclear power plants that close to radioactive material in that time period. His job varied in the show, but we do see him donning gear at points, and he has to sign many agreements he never reads to not sue the company. This isn't Manhattan, it's an undistinguished suburb of one of the many "Springfield" cities throughout the U.S.
overstrike@pandora_parrot I think you need to go back to the 70’s, at least, for this to be true. My (west coast) parents were roughly the same age or little bit older than Marge and Homer in 1989, and for us to live in a similar-ish house during that era, they both had to work. I don’t recall this being much different for my friends (except for the truly wealthy ones).
@pandora_parrot And that is how the 2008 financial crisis started... or it is just inherited.
ENIGMATICO 
@pandora_parrot This is actually the american family model from back in the days. An ultracatholic family with a conservative worker dad who works "hard" (even though the joke is that hes always eatimg and sleeping at the job) for his family, a more liberal mom who works hard taking care of the house and the children, and the children who go to school and sometimes missbehave and get scolded for it.
The Simpsons is actually a parody of the america of the late 20th century and they did a great job at it.
The Simpsons is actually a parody of the america of the late 20th century and they did a great job at it.
HawkmoonThe average salary per this page for a nuclear plant operator is 43k.
Grandpa Simpson lives in the retirement 'castle'.
What are the odds that Homer inherited it?
Then, you have millions of people mortgaged up to the hilt.
.
Then, you have prices in different markets. You can buy a house here in Podunk redville for relatively cheap and commute over 1.5 hours to work in a major city.
And, like Friends, treating a TV show as reality is silly.