Midterm Questions

How the Simpsosn – Last Exit to Springfield Satires workers/unions and management/owners of means of production.

Workers/ unions:

1)     During a flash back, a boy working in a sweatshop owned by Mr. Burns grandfather orders to boy to be taken after finding “atoms” of his good in his pocket. The boy then threatens if this continues then unions will form. And these unions will eventually demand too much and become too expensive for companies to provide for, so they take their companies outside the U.S. like Japan. This reflects reality where Japan workforce is enslaved to the in-place system of how workers are encouraged, and sometimes threatened, to give up their free time for their companies, work overtime, and to choose work over family.

2)     A union leader of the union of the powerplant is missing and they jokingly hope that he will turn up safely but laugh of the notion. They know that he has been missing because of foul play. This has happened to people who start up a riot or event to push back large corporations where they will kidnap, threaten, or even murder the whistleblowers that threatens the corporations profit gains.

3)     The union workers give up their dental plans for one single keg of beer, mainly decided by one of the leaders. This sometimes reflects how people choose the best deals 

      on the whim that they get what they want immediately but don’t worry about things

      that can be an issue in the future.

4)     When Homer gives a speech of what the cons of giving up their dental plan in exchange for one keg of beer. He also

      notes how Lenny, an important figure in the union leadership, wouldn’t have a diamond encrusted on his tooth. This is a notion that some union leader is corrupted and take money from large corporations, or the union themselves, to feed their own needs.

5)     Whenever the union has a meeting and decide to cast a vote, the majority votes in favor of the plan while there is always one naysayer, who has a very “annoying scrawny” voice. When they reveal the naysayer, it is a scrawny “rat” looking person who could be representing a spy that corporations sometimes send into union workers to spread chaos. This happened in the episode when after revealing the naysayer, the naysayer lies and says that the naysayer is the honest looking confident fellow who was minding his own business, but the union accepted the lie and started beating up the innocent guy; thus, causing chaos and ignoring the issue at hand.

Management/ owners of means of production:

1)     In the opening scene, a wealthy business owner is portrayed as a overly exaggerated super villain in a movie. Bart asks Homer if anyone can be that evil which Homer answers no. Then immediately cuts to Mr. Burns laughing in a cynical tone as the same as the evil villain character in the movie.

2)     Mr. Burn’s grandfather owned a company named “atom smashing” showing the ridiculousness of new rising industries in the 20^th century.

3)     Mr. Burns trying to corrupt Homer’s new position as head of the workers union. But because of Homer’s stupidity, he thinks Mr. Burns is coming on to him and refuses. Mr. Burns thinks Homer can’t be corrupted and thinks more highly of him because of his loyalty.

4)     A vulture, which are patient, resourceful, and intelligent birds, looks identical to Mr. Burns who also share similar traits as the vulture. Mr. Burns cares for the bird.

5)     After the works leave the power plant, Mr. Burns and Smithers believe they don’t need works and can run the plant themselves. After realizing they can’t, they hear the workers outside the plant singing. The scene is parodied from How the Grinch Stole Christmas after the Grinch stolen all the presents and hears the village singing and the Grinch realizing that the village doesn’t need materials to celebrate Christmas in the same way the workers don’t need jobs to make them happy as Mr. Burns believed.

I believe this episode affirms and normalizes the prevailing ideology of capitalisms. Without the workers, Mr. Burns cannot make a profit and can’t supply power to the city of Springfield. While the works, without their jobs cannot support themselves or their families and cannot go on their lives without power from the power plant. Without a middle ground to agree on between Mr. Burns and the union, they cannot benefit from each other. Even though workers union is a byproduct from socialism, it improves the productivity of capitalism by supplying a steady flow in the labor market.