The men's biggest problems are always financial ones. As long as they are able to work, and as long as there is work to be done, they are all right. But if they get sick or injured and are unable to work, they have no security at all. They will get paid off, discharged and find themselves back out on the road. Agricultural work is always cyclical. When George and Lennie get their jobs in Of Mice and Men, there is a big demand for workers because they are harvesting all that barley. But eventually the fields will be stripped bare, and then they will all have to hit the road and look for jobs elsewhere. They will have to go through very hard times in the winter months, living out in the open and eating whatever they can glean. John Steinbeck writes about the cruel winters in California in The Grapes of Wrath, when there is no work and the migrants face starvation. One of the reasons that George wants some land of his own is that he would never go hungry. He could store up food to last through the winters.
It should be noted that the working men in Of Mice and Men are all ignorant. They can't adapt to changing conditions because they have nothing to offer but their muscles. Many are illiterate. Even Slim is ignorant, but at least he has learned some skills by experience. He can handle horses and mules. He can also act as a foreman and direct the work being done in the fields by the others. The lesson the reader should learn from reading Of Mice and Men is that education is vital to survival. That was true then, but it is even more true now because there are fewer and fewer jobs available to unskilled workers. Everyone should be able to offer a skill which other people will be willing to pay them for. "A useful trade is a mine of gold."
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