Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich Essay Title: Wal-Mart Bureaucracy

"Nickel and Dimed" is not simply an account of the struggles of low-wage workers. It is a book that attacks the American capitalist system. Barbara Ehrenreich's experiences point out that the efficiency of modern bureaucracies comes at the high cost of individual freedoms. For bureaucracies to function, it requires organization that must include a hierarchy. Oftentimes this will lead to impersonal relations between members, reduced flexibility, and an abuse of authority. However, since the top …

…had at Wal-Mart is a byproduct of our modern bureaucracy and the power elites who maintain it. I find it difficult not to acknowledge both forces playing their roles respectively. Both Max Weber and C. Wright Mills make valid points and thus I felt that both were partly correct. The elites are the ones who created the bureaucracies, and the bureaucracies are left to function by themselves but with the constant guidance of the elites.