The past/future binary of The Flintstones/The Jetsons was so obvious I only just noticed how there’s also a blue collar/white collar versions of the postwar “broad middle class” going on. Flintstones was obviously based on Honeymooners, was there a similar model for Jetsons?

Thinking about how Flintstones opening credits are Fred coming home (like The Simpsons, now that I think) and Jetsons start with George going to work

Thinking about how Fred works in the most primary extraction - stone quarrying in the Neolithic age - and thereby has a full suite of modern conveniences, except the thing is they obviously don’t work cause of any value he added but through subhuman labor operating at a much lower “it’s a living” quality of life. Thinking about how his job or boss aren’t that central compared to social settings and roles like the Water Buffaloes

Thinking about how George works for a company producing a primal intermediate good – sprockets – that are essential to the whole consumer utopia, right down to his live-in mammy. But in such an alienated way that his interactions with boss Mr. Spacely and his identification against rival business Cogswell’s Cogs are central to his identity, but the product itself serves as a totally irrelevant prop for Performing Business Culture