‘$500k?’: Gen Z’s ‘insane’ money belief

Popular TikTok creator Jessica Palmadessa posted a video of her asking teenagers in Beverly Hills how much they think the average American makes in a year.

For reference, the video stated the average American brought home just over $54,000 ($A84,600), however 2022 data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts the annual mean wage at $61,900 ($A96,900).

The first Gen Zer that was asked said the average income was “maybe like $400k to $450k”.

The next person thought it could be even higher than that.

“I don’t know, maybe like half a million,” he said.

Another person guessed between $200,000 and $250,000 a year, with the closest guest being $90,000 to $100,000.

The video has been viewed more than 1.6 million times since being posted earlier this month, racking up thousands of comments from people in disbelief at the answers from the teens.

“Are they really this uninformed? It’s not just out of touch it’s like basic information,” one person asked,

“INSANE guesses holy moly, these kids are super out of touch,” another said.

Others branded the answers “tone deaf”, “horrifying” and “clueless”.

“These people are delusional,” another said, with another commenter adding: “Spoiled children have no concept of anything.”

However, there were those that came to the defence of the Gen Zer’s in the video, with people claiming youngsters without full-time jobs can’t be expected to know how much the average person earns.

“These people clearly don’t work so they don’t know,” one person said.

Another pointed out that Los Angeles is a lot more expensive than other places in the US, so that could also be skewing their answers.

One person said teens who grow up in wealthy areas likely have “completely different perspectives” from those living in lower socio-economic regions.

“I grew up working poor but my kids are not. So they would say an absurdly high amount,” they said.

It turns out young Australians also have some pretty high expectations when it comes to how much money they think you need to be considered “rich”.

Data from comparison website Finder, compiled exclusively for news.com.au last year, found that Aussies think you need to earn at least $336,516 per year to be considered well-off.

According to Gen Z that number needs to be even higher, with young Aussies listing the highest amount of money of all the age groups when asked how much a person needs to earn to be considered rich.

For the youngest generation, $428,474 is needed to classify yourself as rich.

That’s more than six times greater than the median personal income of $52,338, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Millennials had the second highest figure for their wealth fantasy, at $345,785.

Gen X (aged in their 40s and 50s), brought down the average and had the lowest number overall, seeing $294,705 as necessary to enshrining one’s status as rich.

Baby Boomers thought that $306,505 was enough to be pushed into the threshold of wealthy.

Originally published as Video of teens guessing the average income leaves older generations horrified