Quote

Frankly, people buying a home to let should not be squeezing out families who can't afford a home to buy.

People under-invest in family because it doesn't pay off until the long term.

We all need to save money to send our kids to college, to buy our first house, and to retire. But the truth is that most of us don't save very much.

People don't walk away from their homes unless they can't make the payments. That's an indication that we are in a recession.

Many savers are also homeowners; indeed, a family's home may be its most important financial asset. Many savers are working, or would like to be.

My cousin in Louisiana started a small company with a little savings, renovating houses. A single mom, she saved enough to buy a home and provide child care for her son. When the economy went belly up, so did her company. She was forced to sell her home and move in with her parents.

Most small-business owners have no financial education when they started. They weren't trained to be entrepreneurs.

When families save, they can get through emergencies like a bad harvest or a medical emergency. But it's more than that. They can also plan for the future, gradually saving up for a small business or for their children's school tuition.

It is hard to be enthusiastic about the economy's prospects when house prices are falling: Households spend less, small business owners can't use homes as collateral for loans and local governments are forced to cut jobs and programs as property-tax revenue disappears.

Simply cutting the taxes for America's wealthiest families is clearly not creating the needed new jobs, and that strategy is unlikely to succeed in the future.