Did Steinbeck ever see the rise of crony capitalism?
I think everyone needs to pick themselves up by their bootstraps. And I also think that is not a free pass for the corporate overlords.
Discussion
No such thing as crony capitalism. You are talking about the corruption of Fascism.
Fascistic economics is about mixing gov with corporate. Think DIE initiative and stakeholder responsibility. This leads to deals between corporate and gov which the Left goes around and blames capitalism