Comment by ThrowawayR2

I feel fairly confident in asserting without bothering to check that there are proportionally more $20-millionaires in the United States than there were in Steinbeck's time as well so Steinbeck is still on the wrong side of history. While capitalism certainly needs to be regulated to curb its worst excesses, far more than it is now, it's abundantly clear that it has outperformed the alternatives.