Recipient: Lindsay Krause Occupation: Manager, Retail Store Responded On: January 23, 2005 Bill Received At: Shoe Carnival 430 East Rand Road Arlington Heights, Illinois Originally Dropped At: Shoe Carnival 430 East Rand Road Arlington Heights, Illinois On: January 23, 2005

 

Lindsay Krause's Comments

Does your generation of young people view money differently than your parents' generation?
From what I’ve seen, this generation, I don’t think they really appreciate money. They don’t understand how hard they have to work to get it. I think a lot of people get stuff handed to them. I think my mom’s generation. She had to work a lot harder to get stuff. I think people are taking that for granted

How is it that you came to be a little different than others in your young generation?
I probably became different because I had to work. When you watch MTV, all those shows are based on money, how you can get it, how peoples’ parents just give ‘em hundreds of dollars to spend on nothing, and I never really thought that was a good way of getting money. I thought it was kind of immature. I just never wanted to be like that.

So what did you do about it?
I started working and giving my mom big chunks of the money out of my paycheck to help her out. I never wanted to feel like I was working just to get myself stuff that I wanted to help her out.

Did your Mom ask for your help?
My mom has two jobs. She works sometimes 80 hours a week. She would never ask for money. She just never wanted to get money from her kids. So at first I started sneaking it into her purse. And then I just told her I’d buy all the groceries and I just started giving her at least a hundred out of my paychecks just to help her out. And she says that helps out a lot.

Do you have a plan at this point of how long you'll stay on with her doing this? How long will you keep living with her and pitching in? Any thoughts on that yet?
She has severe asthma and diabetes so I figure she’ll need me. I’ll probably be the one taking care of her when she’s older and I’m kind of scared to move out and leave her. So I don’t really have a plan of leaving her any time soon. She does need the help.

In the United States, if people start out in a really low paying job, is it true that they can become quite wealthy if they work hard enough, or is that a myth?
I don’t think it’s a myth that if you start out in a low paying job you won’t make more. I started out in a low paying job and I worked really hard and I moved up pretty fast over the years. So I think if you honestly try hard you’ll move up and make more. I started at $6.50 and I make quite a bit more now, being a manager. They were going to fire me my first two weeks there and then I just worked really hard. And now I’m in the management level.

Why were they going to fire you?
They said I looked like a deer in headlights when it came to helping customers. The way they were going to fire me is, I think it was like 102 degrees out. And they told me to put the clown suit on and go outside to sell our sidewalk sale shoes and I had dropped out of clown school, so I knew what I was doing. And I probably made a record of how many shoes I sold out there and they couldn’t believe it. So it helped a lot.

What is the best thing you've ever done to earn money?
The best thing I’ve ever done to earn money was probably baby-sitting. I like being around kids. It’s easy. It’s a lot more fun to do.

Do you aspire to someday be wealthy?
No. If I am wealthy, I would just end up giving it away to charities. I wouldn’t want to be rich. I don’t like that whole image.

Do you earn as much money as you think you deserve?
Right now, yes. Because I don’t know everything I probably should know for my job. They’re still training me on stuff. So right now I think I’m earning as much as I should be making.

Do you think money is distributed in a fair way in the United States?
I don’t think it’s distributed that fair. Just because some people who work the hardest get paid the littlest amount of money. And some people who don’t work much at all, get paid a lot. It’s the least amount you work, the more money you make, it seems in a lot of jobs. I think some of the lower paying jobs should be making more because you have to do all the worst work.

If you could earn money in anyway, what would you do?
If I could earn money in any way it would probably be as a Christian missionary. I always wanted to go to other countries and tell them about God. But you really don’t make any money and I don’t know another language. Other than that, that’s what I’ve always wanted to do.