"A man, his whole life, matches himself against pay. And how, if it's my whole life's work to find my worth, can you, sad man, write me down instant in a ledger?"What do we stake our worth on? Are we producing value that lasts, that someone trusts, that we can, with respect for ourselves and our community, put out into the world and let grow beyond our own understanding of it?
What more does it add than to fill our pockets and those of others? Are we too busy waiting for the numbers to go up in our accounts to ask the right questions?
John Steinbeck so simply reveals our vulnerability to the appeal of the paycheck and the measure by which we live.