Do you know what the connection between the two writers is? Seems to me that the quote is neither here nor there, but I haven't found anything solid to confirm who said what.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#Disputed

> "John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires", Wright, Ronald (2004). A Short History of Progress. Toronto: Anansi Press. pp. 124.

"When reading a pithy observation about the state of the world, never assume the attribution is correct" -Mark Twain

"The problem with quotes found on the Internet is that they are often not true." --Abraham Lincoln

The misattribution doesn't make the observation any less pertinent.