Barbara Ehrenreich, author of the New York Times best-seller Nickel and Dimed, recently visited a few of the families she profiled in her book to check in on how the recession was affecting their lives.

"In good times and grim ones, the misery at the bottom just keeps piling up, like a bad debt that will eventually come due."

The economic crisis hasn't changed the situation for many of the poor families Ehrenreich profiled because things were already pretty bad before the economy started tanking. They still face the same daily struggles of low wages, little job security, and limited safety nets like savings and family members to fall back on.

These families aren't coping with the economic crisis by canceling vacations and shopping at the Dollar Tree instead of Pier One Imports, for them the impacts of a poor economy are less obvious. Maybe this is why their story isn't often covered by ABC's the View and the local evening news.

Even after the recession ends and the economy begins to rebuild, many Americans will still be living paycheck to paycheck. The Wal-Mart clerk. Your corner grocery owner. Your office-building janitor. In her recent Op-Ed for the New York Times Ehrenreich again gives a voice to today's overlooked citizens.

The media's portrayal of the economic downturn as the "great leveler" between rich and poor misses the mark, Barbara Ehrenreich writes in a commentary for The Nation. True, everyone seems to be suffering some effects of the current recession. But just because the rich are getting poorer doesn't mean the middle class and the poor aren't shouldering their share of losses — we just don't hear about it in the press, Ehrenreich says.

Countless news stories call out the plight of the "nouveau poor" as the wealthy lose vacation homes and are forced to scale back on designer commodities. Meanwhile, more and more Americans are applying for food stamps and cash assistance. And many of the people who are seeking aid have never asked for help before.

Income polarization always gets worse during recessions, Canadian economist Armine Yalnizyan told Ehrenreich. "If the stock market has shrunk your assets of $500 million to a mere $250 million, you may have to pass on a third or fourth vacation home. But if you've just lost an $8-an-hour job, you're looking at no home at all."