Working in Retail

If I’ve got this right, Weber distinguishes between pre-capitalism and capitalism as it was when he wrote this, which was considered the “modern” or “new” capitalism. Pre-capitalism or as he also termed, I believe, traditionalism, meant that people’s purpose in life was “not ‘by nature’ wish to earn more and more money, but simply to live as he is accustomed to live and to earn as much as is necessary for that purpose” (Weber, 24). So in that sense, I would say in my case if I were to live by the traditional capitalism, earning as much money as possible is because my purpose for it is to have money to pay bills. I have phone bills, tuition, and credit card bills. These bills existed because I needed a phone so people could contact me. I have tuition bills because I go to school and I have credit card bills because I want to build good credit to buy a house in the future with the good credit. I am earning money for every purpose and not just earning it for no reason like wanting to smell the crisp dollar bills in my hand or hear the coins jingle in my purse. However, modern capitalism, Weber states according to Franklin’s words was that “he gets nothing out of his wealth for himself, except the irrational sense of having done his job well” (Weber, 33). Maybe I’m just stubborn, but I can not see why people would earn money just because they wanted to get the job well done. I work in a retail store where customer service from the employees are high, but we all know that customers can be a b**** sometimes to the employees. This doesn’t make me want to do my job well, it just makes me give out the minimum required work I am required to do and get the h** out of that workplace. I work to get the money because I have a purpose to spend it somewhere.

Now if I were to tell of a time I was stuck in an iron cage. To me, I understand iron cage to be a moment in which I question my purpose in doing an activity. I could say that what I do for a living is called into question. I hate my job because it’s underpaid and overworked. If there’s any place that needs a union, retail needs a union. Yet, I know I can find a better job with a better wage, but why don’t I? Why do I still work for this place? That’s when I don’t even know the answer myself. Perhaps it’s because there are no other places hiring near my place; I don’t have the qualifications; I don’t have the time to work the required minimum hours per week, etc. How Weber made me understand my dilemma here is that I still work at my crappy job because honestly, I like looking at good clothes and I like keeping a place clean so whenever I work, I keep the clothes in the shop neat and orderly. It makes me feel good about myself when I see all the rows of clothes so neatly hung and folded that any thoughts of money wouldn’t satisfy. It made me feel good that I did a job well done when I leave work thinking my section is clean.