Does being poor prove you are qualified to repair and manage the US economy?

Rick Santorum released his tax returns, and while they show that he has pocketed a good deal of money using his connections and working for a lobbying firm since losing his last Senatorial bid, he says they show that he doesn’t have ‘Wealth’. Romney unquestionably does. Newt isn’t a poor man by any means either. And President Obama is a self-confessed multimillionaire.

Now some have called Romney out of touch with the struggles of everyday Americans, and he may well be. He was born to millionaire parents. He has never know poverty or even living within average means. He has never had to make a trade-off between an expensive medical procedure and a vacation for the family, or patching up an old beater of a car instead of replacing it just so you can make the rent payment. All the other candidates, Obama, Gingrich, Santorum and Paul have lived the life of the common man. In fact, when he was a child, our President’s mom was so poor she was on food stamps for a time. So none of the candidates aside from Romney can be accused of being ignorant of the plight of average Americans. You might accuse them of having forgotten about us, but they at least know deep down what the average Joe Sixpack faces day to day.

But how does being currently poor, or of average means, prove that you know so much about finances that you are not only able to steer the US economy, but are the one best qualified to rescue it from the lingering effects of the Great Recession George Bush’s policies dropped it into? I don’t get it. Do you? Can you explain to me how having not made it is proof you know how to make it?