More workers at Amazon.com’s warehouses—that some describe as high-speed, high-tension sweatshops—have filed federal court suits against the company and its contractors that supply the mostly temporary and low-paid workers for workplace rules that require them to undergo unpaid security checks at breaks and the end of their often 12-hour shifts.

In his speech in Chattanooga, Tenn., yesterday, President Obama rightfully called out for an increase in jobs that pay high wages and offer good benefits, what he called "middle class jobs," and for a focus on creating manufacturing jobs.  While those are laudable goals, Obama chose to give a speech about these topics at the Amazon Chattanooga Fulfillment Center, a location that neither pays those good wages and benefits nor is a place that offers manufacturing jobs.

What do workers at Amazon.com and the brutal existence of the Joads in the Depression-era “Grapes of Wrath” have in common? Writing at Bloomberg, columnist and MSNBC commentator Ezra Klein makes the connection. Read it here.