corporations. Its is a fact that: three fourths of all American .
households have had an encounter with layoffs since 1980. One .
third of all households have had a member who lost a job, and .
almost half o f all individuals had a friend or relative who lost .
a job. (The New York Times, 1996a: A1). There are several reasons .
why so many people may be losing jobs, and that is because of the .
technological progress that lets machines replace people. This .
seems to be a big problem today and that is the fact that we are .
being replaced by computers. Yes it is good that we have .
computers and it does make our lives and jobs easier, but at the .
same time they are replacing workers.
.
We have come a long way to get steady work and wages to .
increase, but now we look at the employee benefits that you would .
expect to get with your job. The number of American workers .
covered by company health and pension plans have decreased. This .
happened because of the weakening effectiveness of labor unions, .
the emergence of part-time employment, the growth of employment in .
smaller firms, and the growth of low wage service jobs. The .
decline of workers covered by health care plans combined with .
increasingly expansive heath care became and immediate problem for .
workers and their families. Yes this is a problem that industry .
and political leaders have recognized but they have yet come to an .
answer to make this problem disappear.
.
I feel that Steinbech wrote this book for a reason, and that .
was to make us aware of the situations that happened back then. We .
are shown what these people went through, the fact that they were .
evicted from their homes, and had to travel with hope to find .
work. The story went from "I lost my land" to "we lost our land", .
and this shows how everyone worked together and were able to .
accomplish things with team work. We see and example of this .
when the Joads stayed at one of the tent sites.
