Last week, Mitt Romney told Soledad O’Brien that he’s “not concerned about the very poor.” The public scrutiny over his honest statement (but poor word-choice) surprised me for two reasons. First, Romney only confirmed a pre-existing narrative, so what was shocking about the statement? Second, it seems to me that Mitt Romney isn’t alone in his lack of concern for the poor; sadly it may be one of his more mainstream views.

Sure, Americans are concerned about the economy (particularly the job situation) but polling generally shows that most Americans are not very concerned about the poor.

Last year, Ipsos/Reuters surveyed more than 18,000 people across 24 nations to find out the top global worries. The United States stood out in that poll as “the sole nation in which poverty was not mentioned.” Technically, the poll asked about “poverty and social inequality” and was conducted before Occupy Wall Street put inequality at the center of political debates. So it’s possible that Americans would respond differently now, but other recent polls show that public concern over poverty hasn’t shifted much.

Last month, Gallup found that “few Americans say that inequality or the gap between the rich and poor worries them.” In fact, inequality and poverty didn’t even make the top-5 list of concerns among people earning less than $30,000 (though this was the only income category where stagnant, low wages made the top-5). In another poll last month, a Pew survey found that more Americans were seeing class conflict between the rich and poor; but the data didn’t suggest any increase in support for policies to reduce inequality. And another Pew survey found a 28-point partisan gap in terms of who thinks that dealing with the problems of the poor and needy should be a national priority.

I know that there’s a lot to fix about the economy. And I’m sure that there are many progressives who do care very much about the poor. But so far, the public conversation about the economy has largely ignored the 46 million people living in poverty.