I am quoted in a Financial Times (Germany) article on the economy of the town of Springfield from The Simpsons. The article (in German) can be found here. I will put a rough translation of the article by the author below the fold.

Big Yellow

It’s a giant marketing coup for this city. When the Simpsons movie hits thea-ters this coming Thursday, all eyes will be looking at a town called Springfield, homeplace of the most successful tv comic series in history.

The city has developed to be an interest-ing spot for investors. They find ex-traordinary conditions. Springfield, a community of roughly 30’000 citizens, has its own nuclear power plant, an interna-tional airport, an industrial brewery op-erating globally, and a booming sector of entertainment businesses. At the same time there’s a host of problems that the city keeps struggling with, hindrances that should best be known if you think of putting your money into this town. Finan-cial Times Germany has checked the city out in detail for this analysis.

LABOR MARKET

Joshua Hall, assistant professor of eco-nomics at Beloit College in Wisconsin, seems convinced of the job market poten-tial in Springfield. “I would see the em-ployment opportunities in Springfield as being quite good for a city of its size,” he says, even if there are no official statistics due to a dysfunctional admini-stration.
Springfield’s major employers are the nu-clear plant and Duff Brewery. Hall also expects hundreds of jobs in the local education sector as well as in Spring-field’s hospital. And he also argues that signs for a vital job market can be seen in the downtown area. “Typically in U.S. towns that size the downtown area is struggling. In Springfield, however, the downtown seems to be doing quite well with lots of small shops.” This can be explained with the citizens’ affinity to spending money which brings life to the city’s hospitality sector as well. Ac-cording to thorough research done in 400 episodes of “The Simpsons”, the city of some 30’720 citizens owns 88 restaurants and bars. Based on the US average data, this would mean that at least 1’150 Springfielders earn their living in kitchens or behind bar counters. Addi-tionally, there are 23 hotels, which sta-tistically would mean another 700 jobs.
A mere job machine is the entertainment industry, however. There are two Diz-Nee Parks, various bowling alleys, night clubs, and other opportunities to spend money. A host of Theme Parks are rivaling to draw visitors, like “Itchy & Scratchy Land”, “Olde Springfield Towne”, or “Duff Gardens” featuring the happiest fish alive in his personal beerquarium. All of these are important employers in the city, since each US amusement park has about 800 people working for them statis-tically.

STANDARD OF LIVING

Salary levels in Springfield are rather low in comparison. “The cost of living in Springfield seems low so it is not clear if the wages are 'too low.',” says Joshua Hall. Low taxation takes pressure away from the working classes and allows them a relatively decent living.
Springfield is no social paradise how-ever. An enormous cleavage widens be-tween workers and big earners. There’s a latent climate of unhappiness, that finds an outlet in spontaneous unrest regu-larly. Mobs with burning torches are not seldom. The angry people have attacked the power plant, the airport, and all scientific institutions in the past.
Also with regard to environmental protec-tion, Springfield needs to do its home-work. Three-eyed fish are swimming in the local lake. The “Simpsons Guide to Springfield” advises visitors to wear protective overalls because of the nu-clear contamination. Last but not least a bunch of car tires has been burning with-out intermission since 1966, the famous Springfield Tire Fire.

INFRASTRUCTURE

As far as its infrastructure is con-cerned, Springfield combines many con-trasts. Major projects have been real-ized, but a lot of basic tasks have never been fulfilled. There are bonuses, like the international airport offering flights on seven airlines, albeit irregu-larly. Other institutions have even gained international acclaim, emphasizes Helga Jonuschat from Berlin’s Secretariat of Future Research. “The bridge, the wa-ter dam, and the city park all have their importance far beyond the region.” Jonu-schat, an acclaimed city planner, thinks that these landmarks have the potential to be used for a tourism development con-cept.
This does not apply, however, to the ma-jority of transportation ways. “Springfield certainly seems to have its problems,“ says Joshua Hall. Main Street shows an extremely bad condition. Some potholes are so enormous that even whole cars have disappeared in them in the past. The public transportation systems connects almost nothing. The subway has only one known stop. And the Monorail almost ended up in a catastrophic crash on its very first ride. It has never been used again.

Joshua Hall also thinks that the offered education has its drawbacks. “The quality of the local school system seems poor,“ he analyses. There are higher education institutions, but they also show questionable qualities. Spingfield A&M College was founded by a cow, for example.

Physicians are pretty sure to find things to do in Springfield, since there are only to doctors working in the city. It would be hard to call this a working medical infrastructure. Springfield also features the highest rate of heart attacks in the whole US. Joshua Hall draws a remarkably pessimistic summary: “Given the cronyism and general incompetence usually displayed by Mayor Quimby, I doubt that Springfield is adequately maintaining its other infrastructure.”

INDUSTRY

Springfield mainly produces margin industry producrts. Some of the most important exports of the city are fake plastic vomit, melted pig fat, the Malibu Stacey Dolls, Southern Crackers notorious for their dryness, and boxes for which the final assembly has been outsourced to Flint, Michigan, however.
There are some strong labels. Duff Beer for instance is successful beyond the city boundaries. The company owns a theme park and a professional baseball team, the Springfield Isotopes. The label’s success can be traced to its able marketing strategy. Muscle-packes Duffman, a cartoon figure with a belt of beer cans, has a reputation as a highly successful integration figure.
The most important industry in town, however, is the power plant. It also shows how clever self-made-man find their profit in Springfield. According to research by “Forbes” magazine, the plant owner Charles Montgomery Burns is worth more than 16.8 bln. USD, ranking second in the list of the richest fictional characters ever, just behind Daddy Warbucks from ‘Little Orphan Annie’.
Whoever plans to take over the highly profitable nuclear reactor needs a warning, as provided by Joshua Hall: “Outside investors have not done well in Springfield historically.” Two German investors bought the plant for 100 mln. USD in 1991, but they later would sell the company back to Burns. The lwo morale of workers and sleeping security men had been to risky for the foreign investors.
Ambition and a well-portioned callousness when dealing with customers and workforce alike are necessary ingredients in order to establish a company. An example of this can be seen in Krusty the Clown, who has built up a business empire. He’s producing cereals, distributing Krusty action dolls, bed sheets, pregnancy tests, and even pork meat, paying no attention to his jewish origins. His fast food chain, Krusty Burger, has no competition in Springfield.

THE FUTURE

Companies from biotech or IT sectors will not meet it easy in Springfield. The low education level will certainly hinder them. “I think the primary factor preventing future growth is workforce quality,” says Joshua Hall. There’s a general suspicion toward all things progressive in this city. People risked being burned as few as 12 years ago if they claimed that the earth circles around the sun.
Nonetheless, city planner Helga Jonuschat sees interesting opportunities, even an “highly interesting endogenous potential”. On the one hand Springfield would be ideal for letterbox companies. On the other hand she assumes that power plant owner Burns, more than a hundred years of age, soon will sell all his belongings to either a property funds or oil sheikhs from Arabia. Jonuschat thinks that the likely investor would then be able to realize huge profits by firing the local employees and hiring illegal immigrants instead, thus making the businesses attractive for new investors and selling them at another extraordinary profit.

And then there’s potential in tourism, as well. Should Burns voluntarily submit to an eco audit, Jonuschat sees a chance for green tourism in the city. A sustainable development with biological energy economy, for instance with rapeseed production and wind power parks, would be possible.

But this would mean that the city would most likely have to get rid of one of its landmarks, the Tire Fire. This spectacular yet not so clean feature would have to be sacrificed. Another bit of tradition would fall victim to structural change.