One affluent Chicago suburb decided to give its wealthy residents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to LARP as a poor person, scheduling — and immediately canceling — a “poverty simulation” at their local country club.


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Designed to increase “understanding and awareness of what it is like to live in poverty in Lake County” according to a flier shared to the City of Highland Park’s official Facebook page, participants would find themselves in “situations in which they do not have enough resources and are forced to make difficult choices that can negatively impact them and their families.”



While this exercise, one apparently designed to emulate a month of the life of an impoverished person, was intended to spark “increased awareness of the need for resources to support those living in poverty,” the result was a whole lot of backlash.



“This sounds like a Kardashian birthday theme for one of the kids they farmed out,”  Facebook user Sam Bruno commented on their post.


“Whoever had this idea needs to stop snorting the top-shelf cocaine immediately,” added Veronica Peña Norman, while Twitter user @WCTA_Chicago dubbed the event as  “Burning Man in a country club.”


Two days — and over 1,000 angry comments — later, the city decided to cancel the offending event. Poor person LARPING — not even once.