Arrested Development and Philosophy_ They've Made a Huge Mistake - Kristopher G. Phillips [37]
NOTES
1. For a defense of the classical model of social responsibility, see Milton Friedman’s “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” in The New York Times Magazine (September 13, 1970). Milton’s article is also reprinted in Contemporary Issues in Business Ethics. 4th ed. Edited by Joseph R. DesJardins and John McCall (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2000), p. 9.
2. Further explanation of the stakeholder model is provided by R. Edward Freeman’s Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Marshfield, MA: Pitman, 1984).
3. Johnson & Johnson’s credo can be viewed online at http://www.jnj.com/wps/wcm/connect/30e290804ae70eb4bc4afc0f0a50cff8/our-credo.pdf?MOD=AJPERES (accessed June 30, 2009).
4. According to U.S. child labor laws, fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds can only work outside of school hours from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. From June 1 through Labor Day, though, they can work until 9:00 P.M. Fourteen- and fifteen-year-old workers can also work no more than three hours on a school day, eighteen hours in a school week, eight hours on a non-school day, and forty hours in a non-school week. There are no restrictions on the work hours of those sixteen years old and older, however. They can work any day, any time of day, and for any number of hours. For more information about U.S. child labor laws, see the Department of Labor’s website, especially the page found at http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/hours.htm.
Chapter 7
BOURGEOIS BLUTHS
Arrested Development and Class Status
Rachel McKinney
From yachts to designer clothes, from private schools to lavishly catered parties, the Bluths lead privileged lives. Indeed, the excesses of American capitalism are one of the main targets of Arrested Development’s satire. But how exactly does the show represent socioeconomic class as a social category? What can we learn about class status, anxiety, consumption, labor, and the family by inquiring into the politics of our favorite dysfunctional clan? What does it mean to be bourgeois and a Bluth?
Your Uncle Doesn’t Not Work Here Anymore: Marx, Labor, and Capital
To begin, a crash course in terminology might be helpful. For Karl Marx (1818–1883), under conditions of capitalism, society is divided into two main social groups: those who own and control the means of production (the bourgeoisie) and those whose labor fuels this production (the proletariat). Under capitalism, labor becomes a commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace. Because the only thing available to members of the proletariat is their own labor, the only option available for subsistence for the working class is the sale of this labor for wages. This labor is then converted into more capital as the worker produces goods and services. The bourgeoisie then sells the products of this labor in the marketplace, making a substantial profit. By keeping wages low, the owners of the means of production can pay workers just enough for basic necessities—in the traditional formulation, enough for the head of household to sustain his home life and provide for the next generation of workers, his children. The bourgeoisie take surplus value from sales of the goods and services and either reinvests the profits or uses them for their own purposes.
Marx’s two-category taxonomy doesn’t easily map on to our contemporary American English use of terms categorizing social class. In casual conversation, the terms bourgeois, poor, and middle-class pick out lots of different things. In addition to a person’s relationship to the means of production (what Marx was primarily interested in), we track social practices, social position, wealth, education, access to resources, and even geographical location. While it’s true that the Bluths do own the means of production—the process of producing McMansions for wealthy southern Californian suburbanites