Brad Miller: “the best news for the American middle class is our home ownership rates. Wages are stagnant for the middle class. They…”

“the best news for the American middle class is our home ownership rates. Wages are stagnant for the middle class. They are not keeping up with inflation. Health care costs just keep going up. Folks do not know what their health insurance is going to pay for until they get sick. They don't know if their pension is really going to be there when it comes time for them to retire, or their employers take a quick dip in bankruptcy so they can short the promises they made to their employees. Almost 70 percent of American families own their own homes. The deed to a home is the membership card in the middle class. For the middle class, the equity they build in their home becomes the bulk of their life savings. What they build by paying a mortgage faithfully month after month becomes the bulk of their life savings. When they need to borrow money, when they have one of life's rainy days, when they want to send the kids to college, or someone in the family gets sick, or they lose their job or they go through a divorce, or they need to repair their homes or they get in over their head in credit card debt, they have to borrow money against their homes. Too often when they borrow money against their homes, they are having their trust betrayed.”