Christmas in the Family Car

Excerpt from The New York Times: (click for entire article)

Do we think “60 Minutes” intentionally aired its second  Hard Times Generation segment, profiling kids living in cars, brushing their teeth at gas stations and telling the reporter Scott Pelley that they just do what they have to do to get by, on the Sunday between “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday?” We do.

More than 15 million Americans watched as the  high school freshman Arielle Metzger, who has lived in a van for the past five months, declared her gratitude for her father and brother and her intent — after she takes full advantage of the education that’s “everything” to her — to become a children’s defense lawyer. On the other hand, the National Retail Federation reports that 226 million of us shopped online or in stores over the weekend. That’s not exactly a contrast — there’s no real connection between watching “60 Minutes” and consumer spending — but I’m willing to bet that if 226 million people watched 8-year-old Jade Wiley and her family paint hotel rooms in order to keep the one they’re staying in, or heard Marquis Gines talk about staying up all night to watch over his mom and keep her safe, at least 200 million of us would at the very least feel even more grateful that we had that money to spend.