Inside Minimum Wage: Reading Jenny Odell Reading Ehrenreich

Jenny Odell introduces several different topics and ideas regarding self-improvement and “doing nothing” in her book. But, an underrated topic she speaks of is poverty in chapter 3. Her discussion of poverty and low-wage life intrigued me and lead me to dive deeper into a text she alludes to titled Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich takes on a 3-month journey of experiencing minimum-wage lifestyle first hand. Ehrenreich shows the realism and harsh struggle of the minimum wage lifestyle which is extremely eye-opening. Despite the credibility and relevance of Ehrenreich’s text, an alternate view at Odell’s original reference to Ehrenreich is seemingly fraudulent. Take a look at my piece and see how I try to find fault within Odell’s reference to Ehrenreich and how it affects Odell’s argument as a whole!

https://msrubin.medium.com/inside-minimum-wage-reading-jenny-odell-reading-ehrenreich-4930d876aa08

Everyone Needs a Break

In Jenny Odell’s writings of How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, she touches on several different striking concepts. Her main argument revolves around this idea of “doing nothing” which can be categorized into sectors of removal, retreat, and refusal. In my piece, I elect to dive deeper into these concepts of retreat and removal. Her writings of retreat and removal caused me to reflect on experiences that I previously neglected. I talk about the crazy journey of 2020 and an alternative way this year could be interpreted. I look on more of a positive outlook of these experiences using the insight I gathered from Odell. I also include a story of my father which has a very strange relation to Odell’s ideas and writings of “doing nothing.” I hope to show you how widely texts can be interpreted and how they can apply to seemingly unrelated topics. I also hope to further manifest the benefits of “doing nothing” that Odell strongly preaches!

View at Medium.com

https://medium.com/@msrubin/everyone-needs-a-break-3ce163d615ff

View at Medium.com