Dave Gahan told Billboard magazine:

We recorded [Spirit] during the [2016 United States presidential election] campaign. We were recording during the time when Brexit was happening and when we finally got the news. A lot of change, a lot of “Really?”-type stuff happening. But it’s been going all around the world, and this separatism, “I’ve got to keep mine, and get out of my way,” and all the stuff we’ve been hearing for years about the one percent – “When are we going to see it trickle down?” It comes up in “Poorman” on this album.

Martin Gore told Drowned In Sound:

“Poor Man” people could say, ‘OK, how could you say that [as a rich man]? But I agree in paying taxes and I would be quite happy to pay higher taxes. I think huge multi-national corporations should be paying tax and they should be paying large amounts of tax; I don’t think it’s right to do a deal with a country and not pay tax.

He also told El Tiempo magazine:

I think ‘Poorman’ is definitely influenced by the blues, but I think in general this album is less “blues” than Delta Machine. Maybe there’s something “bluesy” in the way we write the lyrics.