The growing clout of the poor?

Barbara Ehrenreich writes on the “growing clout of the nouveau poor” in the Nation, a radical American weekly magazine. She is probably right to argue that: “the ranks of the poor are swelling every day with failed business owners, office workers, salespeople and long-time homeowners”. However, she is wrong to assume that simply because the ranks of the poor are swelling they are likely to have more political influence.