It's Steinbeck who in his artful capacity created a very compelling story that in real life would be idealistic and cause the world to grind to a halt. Its a fine story don't get me wrong but the idealism of the father caused a lot of the problems and in our real world where capitalism thrives we have to take a lot of it as a grain of salt.
Bottom line is in the real world we have trade, we have intermediaries and yes middlemen that make a buck. In the final analysis the farmers made out better in the short term, the investors made out, and the end user accepted the terms. That's the cold hard facts of life not some BS of "oh the poor farmers". The latter is communism which fits. We live in a world of goods and quid pro quo exchanges. If we don't do that then none of your work with worth anything. That is the trouble here having worth including the middle men who do add value. Why do you think the lettuce failed. Had he had intermediaries instead which he should have paid for they could have checked it along the way.
Steinbeck is a fine writer and in his magnum opus he did a discredit to the western world. I give it a seven, the mechanics of the writing is superb, the plot lines are idealistic.
Bottom line is in the real world we have trade, we have intermediaries and yes middlemen that make a buck. In the final analysis the farmers made out better in the short term, the investors made out, and the end user accepted the terms. That's the cold hard facts of life not some BS of "oh the poor farmers". The latter is communism which fits. We live in a world of goods and quid pro quo exchanges. If we don't do that then none of your work with worth anything. That is the trouble here having worth including the middle men who do add value. Why do you think the lettuce failed. Had he had intermediaries instead which he should have paid for they could have checked it along the way.
Steinbeck is a fine writer and in his magnum opus he did a discredit to the western world. I give it a seven, the mechanics of the writing is superb, the plot lines are idealistic.