People have many motivations to work. For some, it's more than just a salary, but also the accomplishment of something in themselves. Others are truly passionate about the jobs they choose and what they do. Some people simply aim to become rich and retire early. Then there are workers like those at Nickel and Dimed. These low-paid employees are motivated to work by the need to pay their bills and eat. It is possible to use Max Weber's interpretation of the "spirit of capitalism" as a lens to examine Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and understand the sense of irony and entrapment that Ehrenreich locates in American capitalism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich includes the experiences of her colleagues – most of them women – in her investigative journey. She writes how her colleagues were “oppressed” by being subjected to humiliating and taxing activities with unreasonably low wages. Gail, one of Ehrenreich's colleagues, describes her manager's attitude perfectly as follows: “They don't give you any leeway. You give and they take” (42). This point is further explored by Ehrenreich through the following quote: Cooks want to prepare tasty meals, waiters want to serve them graciously, but managers are only there for one reason: to make sure money is earned for a theoretical entity, the company, which exists very far away in Chicago or New York, if we can say that a company has a physical existence. (42)Nickel and Dimed workers do their best in their work. The cooks and servers are truly concerned about the comfort of their customers as well as the quality of their work. However, managers continue to treat them unfairly because their primary goal is to make maximum profits for the company. Furthermore, Ehrenreich also claims that she changed, as a person, after entering this low-wage working community: "In real life, I am moderately courageous, but many courageous people have lost their courage in concentration camps, and maybe something similar happens. in the infinitely friendlier milieu of the low-wage American workplace” (50). This is said after the manager locked the storage room and Ehrenreich chose not to intervene. This position in her work takes something away from her and, for the moment, completely changes her. This suggests that low-wage workers might face a similar situation, where in reality they are someone completely different from those they disguise by working low-wage. Low-wage jobs have stripped them of their true soul, until they can find something better for themselves and reveal who they are. In The Spirit of Capitalism, Weber cites Benjamin Franklin to illustrate the fundamental beliefs of the ethos: “time is money.” , “credit is money”, “money is of a prolific and generative nature”, “the good payer is the lord of the purse of others” (Weber, 14-15). These beliefs reflect the capitalist ethos of honesty, punctuality, self-discipline, hard work as an end in itself, and dedication to one's task. In other words, Weber describes the irrationality of capitalism where the only goal has become making money even if money does not meet other human needs. He suggests that people in a capitalist society tend toconsider idleness a waste of moral duty. Weber believes that capitalism is presented as a natural order, or an “immense cosmos” (Weber, 19). We are born according to this standard and believe we must conform to it – it becomes what we believe to be the main purpose of life. Weber defined the term "the spirit of capitalism" as the desire for increased profits with the application of a minimum profit. effort. Thus, the inhabitants of capitalist societies had to view work as a burden, which had to be avoided by all means. Additionally, Weber notes that The spirit of capitalism cannot be quantified or defined in specific terms. “Man is dominated by the search for money, by acquisition as the ultimate goal of his life” (18). According to Weber, capitalism is what made it possible to take control of economic life, by educating and selecting the subjects of the economy who will go through the economic process of survival of the fittest. This is also designed by society as a way of life. Weber and Ehrenreich's illustration of the concepts of the "spirit of capitalism" is different in several respects. To begin, it's important to note that Barbara Ehrenreich was born into an upper-middle-class family and may have come to despise the unfortunate, until she actually put herself in their shoes. Weber explains that society sees work as a burden that everyone must avoid at all costs and that this is supported by Ehrenreich's need to survive and therefore have to put in as much effort as possible. It is impossible for her to work less and be able to support herself; work is therefore inevitable. However, Ehrenreich is sorry that she only gets $2.15 an hour for working in a store (Ehrenreich, 49). Weber's argument that hard work is rewarding may not be applicable in this particular case. On the other hand, underpayment destroys the dreams of hard-working individuals, as Nickel and Dimed show. Furthermore, Weber remains convinced that honesty, truthfulness and dedication to one's work provide satisfaction. Unfortunately, this is not the case for Ehrenreich and his colleagues. They work extremely hard for so little money and despite this, they can hardly fulfill their individual responsibilities and meet their needs. Sometimes they view work as a punishment and wish they could at least take time off. The idea that they need money does not allow them to stop working. The “masters of their pockets” are not convinced to only pay the “agreed” amount based on the amount of work wasted. These workers therefore lack the motivation to pursue bigger dreams in life. Yet Weber's notion of the spirit of capitalism manages to illuminate Ehrenreich's article. The reason why capitalism is initially based on historical concepts such as bureaucracy provides a basis for understanding social classes which are explored first-hand in Nickel and Dimed. The rich are the owners of the resources while the middle class are their workers. The circle is vicious in that the middle class can rarely supplant top-ranked jobs with the upper class. This may help explain the phenomenon that middle-class people are incapable of dreaming big. Weber's argument about profit maximization leads one to adopt a different perspective from Ehrenreich's work. In order to maximize profits, the resource owner must mitigate the risks involved. So they may decide to cut costs in order to achieve huge profit margins. This would be important since the rich must be there, 16)