Compared to whom? Gen Zers have grown up amidst endless economic and political crises — fallout from September 11, the financial collapse of 2008, the Great Recession, the Covid-9 pandemic, January 6, etc. — that led to a grimmer view of their futures. Axios reports that their struggles have pushed them right while setting impossibly high expectations for financial security: Catch up quick: Financial services company Empower surveyed more than 2,200 Americans in September and the Gen Z respondents — born between 1997 and 2012 — said they would need to make more than $587,000 a year to be “financially successful.” That’s three to six times the amount reported by other age groups surveyed, and almost nine times the average U.S. salary tracked by the Social Security Administration. So what’s going on here? Costs are certainly up, especially housing costs. People living with their parents into their late 20s or needing rommates just to get by certainly influences one’s sense of economic stability. But the statement above about “influencers” stands out. Is their presence on social media leaving the impression that fame and fortune are just one TikTok away? Or is that just generational prejudice by us oldsters? Or is it another edition of that familiar, old American fantasy that everyone is just one lottery tickey or NBA contract from being fabulously wealthy and a life of leisure? I don’t know. Nor do I know how representative is the Gen Z cohort in Empower’s survey of 2,200 Americans. Cara Michelle Smith…