Lately, a concerning trend has emerged where some TikTokers are romanticizing and downplaying the Great Depression, a pivotal period of economic struggle in American history. Influencers on the platform are making bold claims about the financial conditions during that era and drawing questionable comparisons to the present day.

Numerous creators have jumped on the bandwagon, asserting that Americans during the Great Depression earned more than today’s average salary. One individual boldly stated, “In order to be making an average [salary] that is on par with what the average American was making in the lowest depths of the Great Depression, in the year 2022 you would need to be making $95,000.” Another influencer took it even further, claiming, “we are currently in the greatest depression in American history” and insisted that employed Americans in 1933 made an average of $4,200 annually, which would also be around $95,000 in today’s dollars. …

The actual average salary during the Great Depression was approximately $1,045, which, when adjusted for inflation in 2023, would amount to about $24,526.07.

[This isn’t the end of the TikTok ignorance in the article, either. And one has to wonder why these children glommed onto the Great Depression in the first place. If they paid any attention to it at all, they might have to reconsider their narcissistic social-media existences and wonder just how they’d survive an actual economic catastrophe. — Ed]