Who says that liberals only perform virtue as a means of avoiding doing actual good?

I used to do so all the time, but now that I have learned that the good people of Highland Park–at least a few of them–are planning to have a “Poverty Simulation Event” at a Country Club, I may have to rethink my skepticism that liberals actually care about the lives of the poorer set.

Two and a half hours of poverty, whatever that means, at a country club. It sounds awful, although they likely have a 19th Hole bar where the traumatized participants can wind down and relax after the harrowing experience.

The City of Highland Park in Illinois is holding a “poverty simulation event” where woke rich people will pretend to be poor for 2.5 hours while sitting in a comfortable country club.

You can’t make this up pic.twitter.com/pNwu0W2NPt

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 7, 2023

If you ever wondered how tax dollars get spent, and what all those ridiculous nonprofits that pay outrageous salaries to Democrat apparats do, well here you go. They do crap like this.

In its defense of this event, which shockingly has attracted some criticism and even ridicule, the city explained itself:

City Manager Ghida Neukirch said the simulation event was “developed and presented by social services professionals.”

“The city is partnering with social services professionals from Highland Park and Lake County to offer this immersive experience to raise awareness of the need for resources to support individuals experiencing economic insecurity, and the wide-ranging consequences of this systemic inequity on families and communities,” Neukirch said in a statement to NBC Chicago. “Programs such as this one, which are developed and presented by social services professionals, are intended to bridge that gap.”

The city also noted that the Highland Park Country Club is a city-owned facility that houses the town’s senior city and “is the city’s only building capable of hosting events of that size.”

Lest you worry that the country club is lavish, know that it is owned by the city and really isn’t that posh.

Sure, it is on the Chicago Lakeshore and is surrounded by a 100-acre nature preserve, but really, it is a great place to simulate poverty and was truly a bargain for the city to buy.

The goal of the event–to simulate a month of poverty in 2 1/2 hours for a bunch of rich people–is literally impossible.

The most significant toll of poverty on a day-to-day basis comes from the anxiety of not knowing if you can buy food, pay the rent, put gas in the car, or all the other things most people take for granted.

It isn’t living in a crappy place for a while, or anything so simple and simulable. Poverty is not something you turn on and off. Only an idiot would think that you can “simulate” it.

Highland Park is an affluent community located on Chicago’s North Shore. In a report from 2021, the Chicago suburb was listed among the richest cities in the country, with a median household income that was “more than double the national figure,” according to data analyzed by finance website 24/7 Wall Street.

But of course, simulating poverty isn’t the point. It is looking good to one’s peers and feeling good about yourself, and that is what the City of Highland Park is offering its citizens, and at a nice venue too.

And if you were a government in one of the wealthier zip codes in America you would think this is a good idea too.