Yes I know this is a very old show, but it’s just that I was reading about the character lore as I was wondering why George Jetson lets Spacely push him around as to put it simply, I was trying to picture a scenario where he stood up to him.
Sorry if this is the wrong place to be discussing such an old show, but I just wanted to explore the lore behind the show itself to see if I could understand why George is a guy who is down on his luck because it seems like everyone is out to get him in the original show, so if my post comes out a little funny looking, I apologize as again I was just trying to explore the lore of the show.
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Because the alternative is unemployment, poverty and hunger for his entire family
Just like real life
He’s paid VERY well just for pushing a single button every day and he’s one of Spacely’s few human employees and it’s loosely implied he only has a job because of legislation that prevents corporations from going 100% automated? He doesn’t do any work besides turning on Spacely’s AI Rudy.
That’s just what a full 2 hour workweek is like in 2062. Is your boss less annoying?
He has to push a button, for three hours, on his three workdays.
I think George knew he hit the jackpot, even if it’s dealing with Mr. Spacely.
Everyone already gave a good answer, but I just wanted to say that the question you asked is exactly the type of question that should be asked on this sub Reddit. It’s fun to discuss the lore of the show from a Watsonian perspective.
His job is to push a single button and that’s it if I could get paid for that I’d put up with anything.
George is utterly incompetent, unmotivated, and not terribly bright. I mean… he regularly messes up a job where all he has to do is push one button once every couple of days. Like, this job only exists to make humanity feel useful — clearly no one works to earn money.
So as dumb as George is, it’s genuinely never occurred to him to look for a different job.
The work culture of George Jetson’s 2060s is a lot like it was in the 1960s, and part of that is an assumption that during your life you’ll likely work for just one company, as long as you can, so as to accumulate the best possible pension after forty years. Changing jobs, even just once or twice, is unusual enough to raise some eyebrows among one’s peers, risking a drop in social status. To avoid that, tolerating a crabby boss doesn’t seem so bad.
I have a slightly different take on the show. Of course it’s fantasy but it gives me a chuckle.
I think Spacely abuses George because he’s powerless to do anything else. George’s job is to push a button that probably doesn’t connect to anything in a factory that’s 100% automated making sprockets. Spacely is responsible for George, meaning his job is also meaningless. His wealth helps a little bit but otherwise he and everyone else has no control over a society entirely run by robots/AI.
I look at the show and see sparsely populated cities (population control?) far from the ground (ruined Earth?) with little real food and surrounded by sarcastic robots that seem to run everything. Society has mostly been degraded into pure hedonism, with all cares taken care of and all work largely symbolic. Humans are probably kept around because robots are too enlightened to kill them all and recognize them as their backup if things ever go wrong..plus who else’s mind is Uniblab supposed to screw with? Another computer? How awful!
Sure, George has Rosie the Robot but I’m certain she’s actually their boss and not their servant, cleverly letting the Jetsons think they own her as a form of control. Maybe she also has a maid fetish..who knows. And yes, they have flying cars and can go to other planets but in the end are still dependant on the same devices and AI babysitting as back home.
Ultimately, I see humans in the show as pets to machine overlords who took things over a long time ago. Sure, we see the Great Gazoo attempting to get George to stop being such a “Dum Dum” and wake up to the truth, even going so far as to show him how real humans are supposed to live (Flintstones) but ultimately he can’t see past the illusion.
And all the while, Spacely, unconsciously aware of his own impotence, rages against the machine by rebelling just a little through abusing his employee. He knows something’s not right but being unable to perceive what it is, he can’t escape the Hanna Barbera Matrix.