Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
What's going to happen if AI displaces large numbers of workers?
We don't have to guess, because we have seen it happen before.
John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Dust Bowl migration, a period where thousands of farmers were put out of work due to a combination of environmental factors and new technologies like the tractor, which increased efficiency and lowered the demand for jobs.
What were the results? Nothing good. The poverty people experienced was treated like a personal failure of the people suffering conditions largely out of their control. It also drove down wages of farming jobs to literal pennies because people were so desperate to find work.
While much has changed in the near hundred years since the Grapes of Wrath was written, not much has changed in our sentiments towards capital, poverty, and community.
#johnsteinbeck #literature #bookstagram
What's going to happen if AI displaces large numbers of workers?
We don't have to guess, because we have seen it happen before.
John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Dust Bowl migration, a period where thousands of farmers were put out of work due to a combination of environmental factors and new technologies like the tractor, which increased efficiency and lowered the demand for jobs.
What were the results? Nothing good. The poverty people experienced was treated like a personal failure of the people suffering conditions largely out of their control. It also drove down wages of farming jobs to literal pennies because people were so desperate to find work.
While much has changed in the near hundred years since the Grapes of Wrath was written, not much has changed in our sentiments towards capital, poverty, and community.
#johnsteinbeck #literature #bookstagram
