The Grapes of Wrath-movie/ book?

[skipper68]

Read the book? Seen the movie with Henry Fonda? Compare it to now? Good or bad. Opinions? Stone soup was good. Eating shoes? Where is your perception today? Where was it 5 years ago? Share please?

[Nicholas Scheuer]

You left out the Stage Play. For me it was more powerful than either the book or the film.

[Glen Longino]

There's no comparison between the people's circumstances in Grapes of Wrath and today. Not even close. Today's "poor people" in the US live high on the hog in comparison.

I agree!

[Bobby of Tulsa]

There are people in Tulsa that sleep under bridges and on benches downtown, all that they own is carried in a back pack. Must be some short hogs around here.

[Norman Bernstein]

It was considered to be a 'communist' work of fiction, back when it was published.

I find it interesting, that the sensibilities of many Americans in the late 30's and into the 40's were so deeply populist. A series of movies from that era carry the same theme, more or less: 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington', 'It's a Wonderful Life', 'Meet John Doe', and so on. Even Andy Griffith's finest role, 'A Face in The Crowd', carries the general theme forward.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

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[skipper68]

I question this, because when they hold a job fair for 100 people 3000 people show up. They are willing to do anything to get a paycheck.

Originally Posted by Geo Duck View Post
There's no comparison between the people's circumstances in Grapes of Wrath and today. Not even close. Today's "poor people" in the US live high on the hog in comparison.

The State of Homelessness in America 2012 examines homelessness between 2009 and 2011, a period of economic downturn in the nation. The report shows that despite the bad economy, homelessness decreased by 1 percent during this period. The decrease was likely due to a significant investment of federal resources to prevent homelessness and quickly re-house people who did become homeless. The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) was a $1.5 billion federal effort to prevent a recession-related increase in homelessness. It was built upon ground-breaking work at the federal level and in jurisdictions across the nation to improve the homelessness system by adopting evidence-based, cost effective interventions. In 2010, its first year of operation, it assisted nearly 700,000 at-risk and homeless people. This report provides evidence that it was successful in achieving its goal of preventing a significant increase in homelessness.

Despite the fact that the number of homeless people was essentially unchanged between 2009 and 2011, there is much reason for concern. As this report points out, economic and demographic indicators linked to homelessness continue to be troubling. Homelessness is a lagging indicator, and the effects of the poor economy on the problem are escalating and are expected to continue to do so over the next few years. The resources provided by HPRP have run out in many communities and the program will sunset entirely in the fall of 2012; despite the need and proven effectiveness these resources have not been replaced. Debt and deficit reduction at the federal level have begun to shrink assistance available to the most vulnerable. In the year since the data in this report was collected (January 2011), there have already been reports that the number of homeless people is increasing.

So the band aid approach is going to stop in the fall. I know many are relocating for employment, just to find the company that hired them were going to close. This is where I see the comparison. Minimum wage jobs, that the taxpayers subsidize with food stamps and medicaid, along with section 8 housing and HEAP. This cant continue with the tax base dropping. I know people WANT to work, yet there are way too few jobs to be found. I also see crimes of desperation increasing.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

There's no comparison between the people's circumstances in Grapes of Wrath and today. Not even close. Today's "poor people" in the US live high on the hog in comparison.

Agreed. But the United States today is the richest, most powerful country that ever existed and the fact that we still have so many poor is a blot on us and our history.

[Dan McCosh]

There's no comparison between the people's circumstances in Grapes of Wrath and today. Not even close. Today's "poor people" in the US live high on the hog in comparison.

Done any migrant agricultural work lately? I tried it in the 1960s, and it paid about $1.50 a day. I would be surprised if it's a lot better today. I did all right, however, writing a piece called "Apricots of Wrath".