Arrested Development and Philosophy_ They've Made a Huge Mistake - Kristopher G. Phillips [32]
NOTES
1. Karl Marx, “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.” Early Writings, trans. Benton, Gregor and Rodney Livingstone. (New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1992), p. 328.
2. Karl Marx, “The Holy Family,” Writings of the Young Marx on Philosophy and Society. ed. Loyd D. Easton and Kurt H. Guddat (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1967), p. 367.
Chapter 6
FAMILY FIRST
How Not to Run a Business
Brett Gaul
“What comes before anything? What have we always said is the most important thing?” Michael asks George Michael in the pilot of Arrested Development. “Breakfast,” replies George Michael. “Family,” says Michael. If the Bluth Company has a mission statement, it has to be “Family First.” Of course, the motto is also used to justify everything from George Sr.’s having sex with Lucille in a conjugal trailer before he visits Kitty in a different conjugal trailer (“Visiting Ours”) to George Michael’s scoring some weed for Buster (“Pier Pressure”). But let’s narrow our focus to how the motto shapes the Bluth Company’s business decisions.
According to the Bluth Company’s “Family First” model, a company should always do whatever is in the best interest of the family who owns the largest share of the business, regardless of whether it’s legal or moral. This comes close to the classical theory of corporate social responsibility, according to which, the purpose of the corporation is to legally maximize profits for stockholders. On this account, if something’s not illegal, it’s permissible.1 Rightly or wrongly, Wal-Mart has been perceived as epitomizing this model of corporate responsibility. And because some have thought that the classical theory of corporate responsibility is too narrow, a much broader alternative has been developed—the stakeholder theory. The stakeholder model—an updated corporate social responsibility with an emphasis on the social aspect—doesn’t deny that corporations have a responsibility to look out for stockholders’ interests, but it adds that corporations also have responsibilities to those with a stake in their business decisions, such as employees, customers, suppliers, and communities.2 Johnson & Johnson’s mission statement is an excellent example of the stakeholder model.3 What Johnson & Johnson calls “Our Credo” starts by saying that the company’s first responsibility is to the people who use its products. Its second responsibility is to employees, and its third responsibility is to the communities in which they work and live. Johnson & Johnson asserts that its final responsibility is to its stockholders. Clearly, the Bluth Company’s “Family First” motto is much more like Wal-Mart’s theory of corporate social responsibility than Johnson & Johnson’s.
Product Safety: The Cornballer
Corporations have an obligation to design and sell safe products. Because the Bluth Company puts “Family First,” however, the company doesn’t care whether the products it sells are safe. The only concern is whether a product will make the family money. If it’ll make a buck, the Bluth Company will sell it. Consider the Cornballer, a Bluth Company device that deep-fat fries cornballs. There’s a problem with the product design; it gets very hot and can cause severe burns. The Cornballer is first mentioned in “Bringing Up Buster,” where we see a 1970s infomercial clip in which George Sr. attacks Richard Simmons after Simmons splashes hot oil on George Sr. while removing a cornball. Later in the series Michael and Tobias also get burned by the Cornballer. Because the Cornballer is unsafe, it is illegal to sell. Upon seeing the Cornballer, Gob remarks, “I thought these were only legal in Mexico.” At which point the narrator reveals that the Cornballer is actually not legal anywhere, but that George Sr. nevertheless markets the product successfully in Mexico.
In “The One Where They Build a House,” George Sr. evades U.S. law enforcement by fleeing to