How did the author of “The Iron Heel” and “The People of the Abyss” become one of America’s most out-spoken socialists? Experience.

Jack London’s political philosophy was forged in pain and sweat, and those lessons are starting to look relevant today. The U.S. will most likely never become the cutthroat society it was in London’s time, but the story may seem a little relatable.

So, what happened?

Jack London’s early days as an independent young man weren’t particularly political. He was an oyster pirate, a Yukon gold rusher and a tramp royal. Even his time marching with Kelly’s Army wasn’t particularly driven by belief.

But, when London ventured into the working world, things changed.

According to Irving Stone’s biography Sailor on Horseback, Jack London determined to work in the exciting new field of electricity. So, he went to the Oakland Street Railcar and got a job shoveling coal for 30 dollars a month. The days were 13 hours long, and he had only one day off a month.

He wondered how any man could keep up such an overwhelming workload.

Another worker eventually confessed to him that before, the job was done by two men — one on the day shift and one on the night shift. And those two men were both paid 40 dollars a month each. When Jack came along, the superintendent fired them both and threw the future author in a never-ending job that usually ended with him too exhausted to even eat.

More than that, one of the men he replaced was a family man with a wife and three children to care for. After losing the coal-shoveling job, he couldn’t find work, and so he committed suicide.

Jack London quit and resolved to never be a cog in the wheel of capitalism again.

The rest came from study and experience. His failed attempt to cover war in Europe led to him being stuck in London. So, Jack put on some old clothes and started surveying the city’s notorious East Side. Then the writer risked his career to publish the Iron Heel, a pillar of socialist writing as well as steam-punk and soft sci-fi.

There are at least minimum wage laws now, but a number of laborers are undercutting each other left and right (if you’re a writer — look at Upwork and despair). But truck driver income has slumped, with new drivers working on contract.

When London got deeper into socialism, he started using many of the metrics we know today, explaining how much of the wealth is held by the upper classes and how little there was for everyone else.

But what about all the money…

Jack London was wealthy and popular in his own time. And he was wrong about a lot.

He predicted American capitalism would end by the year 2000, but it was his trust in human nature that ultimately led to him turning his back on socialism.

Jack built a mansion on a huge tract of Californian land, and everyone was invited. Tramps ate with blue bloods, and every man who wanted work would get a job, at least for a while. Soon, London had a revolving door of workers, who often didn’t work. He’d find men standing out in fields or sitting under trees laughing.

He started thinking they were laughing at him.

Jack London built a yacht with the same generosity and found the cost balloon out of control, but it was when he newest home was burned, allegedly by arson, did his belief in good of the working man finally seemed to peter out.

Jack London died at the age of 40.