"It don’t make no sense. This fella wants eight hundred men. So he prints up five thousand of them things an’ maybe twenty thousan’ people sees ’em. An’ maybe two-three thousan’ folks gets movin’ account a this here han’bill. Folks that’s crazy with worry…The more fellas he can get, an’ the hungrier, less he’s gonna pay."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. A ragged man coming back from California provides the first evidence that California may not be the promised land migrant families like the Joads hope for. He explains to Pa Joad that the handbills promising work in California are designed to attract too many workers, so that employers can exploit those who show up and pay them as little as possible. Steinbeck is hitting at the corrupt system whereby greedy employers can take advantage of workers’ starvation to add to their own wealth.