Hoovervilles Then, Obamavilles Later?

Hooverville

A recent Time article, "Jobless in America," stated, “America now faces the direst employment landscape since the Depression.” In this portion of The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads have made it to California and we are given a glimpse of what the dire employment landscape was in the Depression. The characters that the Joads meet in California tell them about the scenario. Time and again, the family is told of the reality.

A man they meet at the riverside is heading in the other direction. He makes an attempt to warn them of the lack of work and poor standard of living which migrants are forced to live. The man is harshly honest: “You ain’t gonna get no steady work. Gonna scrabble for your dinner ever’ day. An you gonna do her with people lookin’ mean at you” (281). Later at a Hooverville, they meet Floyd Knowles, who also shares discouraging news. He tells them, “Look I been scourin’ aroun’ for three weeks all over hell, an’ I ain’t had a bit a work, not a single han’-holt” (354). The Joads made their trip across several states on an empty promise of an overprinted handbill. Instead of work, the find themselves in a Hooverville with reports of how the Depression is just as bad for them in California.

Today, there is no form of mass migration to a better life in California. Unemployment still abounds there. California has reached a historical high for unemployment with a rate of 11.9%. The national rate is at 9.7%. These rates may not compare to the astronomically high rates of the Great Depression, but surely they show there is something to worry about. The unemployment we face today can afflict everyone. In the 1930s, if you were a farmer in the Dust Bowl it was basically a guarantee that the odds were not in your favor. A professional in a city might have had better luck. However today, as the Time article notes, anyone and everyone is at risk – lawyers, counselors, retail clerks. It’s a scary thought that not even an education and some sort of professional training can insure employment for you in this economic climate.

While this recession isn’t nearly the Depression, it is still bad and could get worse. We’re not at the state of Hoovervilles and 25% unemployment. We might get there one day though. It’s something we need to worry about. “Jobless in America” puts forth a frightening thought: “if we’re not careful, [we could face] a country sprouting listless Obamavilles.”