> it's not that the show predicted the future, it's just that we still have the same problems we had in the 80s because we haven't fixed any of them.

Spot on. It's wild that "Homer's Enemy" aired in 1997, almost 26 years ago this May, where Frank Grimes hated Homer for the latter's ability to coast through life and still have it all -- a wife, multiple kids, a nice house, a stable job -- while Grimes, despite working hard in all aspects of his life, still struggled to make ends meet.

Flash forward 25 years later to the season 33 episode "Poorhouse Rock," which aired last May, and the show straight up confronts Bart with the reality that he'll never have what Homer has even if he works hard -- that the dream of owning a home and having a stable job and multiple kids that was at least possibly attainable when the show started has now evaporated for newer generations. Even though he obviously wasn't in the episode, it essentially proves Frank Grimes was right in the long-term, that even if he existed now, still did everything he was told he was supposed to do by society -- go to college, work hard, etc. -- he'd still be just as pissed, if not more so, at Homer for having such (what is now) miraculous luck.