All they own is in a beater and they follow seasonal work from place to place, trying to feed themselves and survive just a little longer. Others are in shelters, doing day labor. Still others are in "informal communities" on land nobody else wants near landfills, sewage treatment plants, and out in the woods.

Marginal workers have taken a beating for the last 30 years as the rooming houses they used to live in got gentrified and no other housing appeared to take its place. Minimum wage has lagged far, far behind inflation. Did y'all know that in 1954 it supported a family of four above the poverty line? It did.

Now minimum wage won't support one adult in safe housing with adequate nutrition and the ability to visit a doctor when he gets sick, let alone allow him to save for emergencies, an occasional luxury, or his own retirement.

Ma Joad was right, we're the people and they might beat us down but they'll never beat us. What we need is the will to clean out the 1% just a little more often, taxing away their ill gotten wealth or, if we're not allowed to do it peacefully, to roll out the tumbrils.