Arrested Development and Philosophy_ They've Made a Huge Mistake - Kristopher G. Phillips [36]
International Business: “Light” Treason
The Bluth Company’s “Family First” motto gets them into trouble with the CIA—well, at least the CIA East—when George Sr. makes a deal to build homes in Iraq. Because U.S. corporations have been prohibited from doing business with Iraq since the early 1990s, George Sr. says that he may be guilty of some “light” treason. In “Exit Strategy” we learn that, unbeknownst to the CIA East, the CIA West—which shares the other side of a cubicle with the CIA East—had helped set up a deal in which the Bluth Company built homes in Iraq for Saddam Hussein. The CIA West arranged this so that they could wire the homes with listening devices in the hopes of learning if and where Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. The Bluths, CIA East agent Richard Shaw says, are “unintentional operations victims.” “We feel terrible,” he later adds, “because this is really our mistake.”
Of course, the Bluth-built Iraqi homes have some of the same problems as the shoddily built U.S. model home. In “Let ‘Em Eat Cake” a television reporter in Iraq reports from one of Saddam’s mini-palaces; the palace looks just like the “Seawind unit” the Bluths live in and even has some of the same furnishings. As the reporter is explaining that U.S. troops are living in some of these houses, a soldier knocks off the same part of the balcony railing that George Michael did in the U.S. model home earlier in the episode. The reporter notes that the home has sustained a lot of damage, but that most of it is due to “shoddy workmanship.”
Moral Development Arrested
By putting themselves before the people who use their products, their employees, and their community, the Bluth Company often makes unethical decisions at the expense of others. Typically, their immoral behavior results in only a short-term benefit, which is soon wiped out by the long-term consequences created by the same behavior. Although it turns out that George Sr. is not guilty of treason—light or otherwise—the company has other problems concerning shady bookkeeping and defrauding investors. While George Sr. is innocent of wrongdoing in building homes in Iraq, he appears guilty of various SEC violations. Seeing the authorities coming to get him, George Sr. calls the office and tells them to “empty the account” and start shredding documents. He later tells Michael that the SEC has been after him for years. From watching the pilot alone we can see why someone might have tipped off the SEC about the Bluth Company—most of the Bluth family uses the company’s bank account as their own.
In the series finale “Development Arrested,” we learn that even though George Sr. is not innocent, the embezzlement and pension robbing charges against him, like the treason charges, have been dropped. Just when it appears that the Bluth Company’s unethical ways are going to go unpunished, the SEC swoops in again. This time the charges are against Lucille, who was named CEO of the Bluth Company in the pilot. While George Sr. has been in prison, Annyong has been amassing evidence of Lucille’s wrongdoing in an attempt to bring down the Bluth family and exact revenge for his deported grandfather.
Throughout the series, Michael knows that the family’s business philosophy is seriously flawed, but he never follows through with his repeated threats to leave the family and the company because he desperately seeks his father’s approval. In “S.O.B.s” the family throws a Save Our Bluths legal defense fundraiser. During a speech at the event Michael admits that “maybe the Bluths aren’t worth saving” and that they’re “very self-centered.” “Anyway,” he concludes, “here’s my advice to you. Go ahead and take yourself a goody bag and get out of here while you still can.” If Michael really wanted to run an ethical business—as he professes a number of times that he does—he should’ve heeded his own advice or modified the family motto.