For years, people have floated the same provocative idea: what if a billionaire CEO had to live on the salary of their lowest-paid employee? No safety net. No savings. No quiet shortcuts. Just rent, food, transport, and bills, all balanced on a wage that barely stretches to the end of the month.
On the surface, it sounds like poetic justice or even empathy training. But when the question was posed online, the responses weren’t hopeful or triumphant. They were skeptical, tired, and deeply revealing.
The discussion quickly shifted from entertainment to something heavier: security, fear, power, and the difference between choosing hardship and being trapped in it. Scroll on, and the fantasy starts to crack in uncomfortable ways.
Here’s the question:
#1
HunterSG1: 3 months minimum and I’d watch it
Fuck-de-Tories replies: With problem scenarios thrown in. *broken down car *tube strike *dodgy boiler *sick child. The wheels would come off pretty quickly
insertstalem3me replies: Well with a broken down car, the wheels have already come off
#2
Eggmatros: There was this similar themed show in Hongkong and Mainland China years ago.
They swapped billionare with bottom feeders, let the rich do the basical job, on the lowest salary, to see how far the rich could go by purely their own effort.
Nearly all of the billionare admitted that they could not make anywhere, regardless of how hard they worked, even working without sleeping and resting could not give you any accumulation to help climb up to the higher level of the society.
There was only despair, and admission that the divide between the poor and the rich is already a deep valley and mere personal effort makes little sense.
It stirred big debate among the society back then, and I think that was part of the reaons the show got cancelled .
There was also another show in China, swapping senior political figures with community level council workers, to see how good they could do in each other’s posts.
The mayors were flooded by the angry mobs who kept asking for more and more benefits that were impossible to fullfil, by the end had to admit the amount of work at basic community level was too much to archieve anywhere.
The show also got cancelled quite soon after a few episodes.
Pilot_Threwaway replies: The show is called 窮富翁大作戰 in Cantonese.
This Youtube playlist has all three seasons of the show in a single playlist. It is entirely in Cantonese without English subs though.
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), the producer of the series, revisited some of the people in the show and did a few follow up episodes. You can find those here.
EDIT: for those looking for English subs, another kind redditor found a playlist for the version broadcasted in English and commented on the video itself.
#3
LukeCloudStalker: I love Reality shows so I’d watch it depending on who produces it. If it’s too fake, with too many “emotional” moments, advertising and people shouting, I’m out.
#4
Dannypan: It’s more than just the money. It’s the lack of security these people endure. Not knowing if you’ll lose your job tomorrow and having no savings. Being kicked out of your home. An unexpected bill you can’t afford, which may lead to increasing debt.
Putting these rich people in a “poor” lifestyle for a month isn’t enough. Even if they lost their money and homes, they’ll have such a huge network that they’ll be back on their feet in the time it takes for us peons to earn enough to eat for a week. They can never truly understand what it’s like to be poor or ever face that reality again.
So what would happen? It’d be a completely self-serving advert about how “now I realise that we need to do more for our employees.” The workers get a small vanity bonus, probably give an immigrant worker with limited English a car, pat themselves on the back. Then two weeks later, we’ve all forgotten about the show and they’ll go back to their old ways.
The richest have security. And it’s this safety net that keeps them from truly understanding the day-to-day struggle of those living paycheck to paycheck.
According to PsychCentral, financial stress affects emotional and cognitive decision-making in ways that go far beyond simply running out of money.
When people are faced with ongoing insecurity, such as constantly worrying about losing their job or home, it affects their mental bandwidth. Simply put, low-income workers aren’t just fighting to pay bills, they’re fighting anxiety, fear, and constant stress.
Even short-term poverty simulations fail to capture this. VeryWellMind notes that while simulations can show the struggle of living with less, they cannot replicate the emotional burden that comes with constant instability.
Until a person has lived with that kind of pressure for months or years, it’s impossible to understand how deeply it affects every part of life.
#5
Reddit user: It would be incredibly self-serving and boring. They would never truly experience what it is like to be in the precarious position of a minimum wage employee living hand-to-mouth and the ‘novelty’ is just salt in the wound.
It would be more interesting to see the reverse.
#6
_rightClick_: I doubt a month is enough to really feel the effect
#7
Reddit user: Sure. They would never do that though, because then they would have to admit that they don’t pay a living wage.
#8
ade1aide: Lots of rich people voluntarily go on vacation to third world countries. The catch is, they know they have a way out and an end date.
I’d be interested to watch a show where the CEO had to personally be financially responsible for the welfare of 50% of their lowest payed employees for 10 years, and their net growth percentage equalled their bonus every year, with a big bonus if both the company and the employees were profitable at the end.
devoidz replies: Weird thing is they would be profitable.
What I linked is about a millionaire in Orlando. Here is a quick part of it. It is an interesting read, and it would be interesting if others would help scale it up.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Two decades ago, Harris Rosen, who grew up poor on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and became wealthy in the Florida hotel business, decided to shepherd part of his fortune into a troubled community with the melodious sounding name of Tangelo Park.
A quick snap from the city’s tourist engine, this neighborhood of small, once-charming houses seemed a world away from theme park pleasures as its leaders tried to beat back drugs, crime and too many shuttered homes. Nearly half its students had dropped out of school.
Twenty-one years later, with an infusion of $11 million of Mr. Rosen’s money so far, Tangelo Park is a striking success story. Nearly all its seniors graduate from high school, and most go on to college on full scholarships Mr. Rosen has financed.
Young children head for kindergarten primed for learning, or already reading, because of the free day care centers and a prekindergarten program Mr. Rosen provides. Property values have climbed. Houses and lawns, with few exceptions, are welcoming. Crime has plummeted.
#9
Boatguard: You know most of them are just regular people right? A “”billionaire CEO”” most likely was there at one point, and probably has the knowledge and mindset to budget accordingly. It would be boring as fuck.
The fascination / hate with rich people is crazy considering everyone is working to…. get richer.
#10
thinksoftchildren: It would be better if they had to live with their lowest salaried employee for a month or two, imo. In their house, dinner with the family, travel to and from work together, same lunch, kids with homework, the works.
Building that relation would imo do much more for this problem than just “experiencing below your normal standard of living before returning to it”.
You’re more likely to feel empathy for a family you know, and much less likely to forget them. Anything else would just be another show about wealthy people having a fun adventure to talk about at cocktail parties
#11
IAmNotAWoodenDuck: I’d do more than a month and without any contact to rich buddies either. If it’s a month, I think a lot would just buy rice and beans every day and go “See? It’s super easy to be poor! You just need to make economical choices! I’ve proven myself right!”
Longer than that and they’ll really have to get used to how their lowest paid employees live. Would they learn a lesson? Maybe. Likely not. They still have a mansion to come back home to.
They’ll give their lowest paid people a one time bonus or maybe they’ll drag one out in front of a camera to give them a fancy car so their own reputation gets better. And then they won’t change anything else.
#12
Bryan15012: I’ll be a contrarian here and say that I bet they would be able to thrive. Usually the CEO of a company got to that position because they are an uber talented human (obvious exceptions excluded). I think a CEO would be able to manage their resources effectively and make it work.
#13
Proletarian1819: They would just treat it as a novelty since they know they will be getting their billions back at the end of the month. They wouldn’t have to truly live like a person does who lives hand to mouth every day of their lives.
They wouldn’t really learn anything from it, in fact they would probably look back on it and laugh, “Oh remember when we had to eat that can of ravioli hahaha!”
#14
rusthighlander: 1 month isn’t long enough because no rent is due etc.
#15
tickledpic: Depends if he is self made or not. Self made rich people often know very well what it means to be poor and that’s why they worked so hard to not be.
#16
IheartCart00ns: There was an episode of American Dad where they tried to live on minimum wage for a month- it was FANTASTIC.
#17
HHS2019: I support raising the minimum wage and the concept definitely resonates, but the show concept is not going to be life-changing for anyone involved.
I will brace for the down-votes, but I don’t understand why we fault people for making a lot of money (as long as they do it honestly). The dark secret of any executive, athlete, artist, actor, etc. who makes an exceptional amount of money is that this is what the market will pay them.
The CEO of company X likely has a skill set that is very useful for planning corporate strategy that few people have and that takes decades to develop (understanding of finance, ability to read market trends, skill negotiating partnerships and labor agreements).
If they are good at this, the company and its shareholders (if they’re publicly traded) will also benefit. So, this is in many ways an investment.
As for the workers who earn less, we should raise the minimum wage. But, they too are free to seek employment elsewhere if someone will pay them more money. It doesn’t make sense getting angry at market dynamics.
If any company were to apply a policy overnight that “we are going to pay our CEO the same as our assembly line workers, you would likely see that company go bankrupt soon as because the only people willing to do that job at that price, probably don’t have the experience to do it wisely.
All the qualified candidates took jobs at your competitor’s factories where they were offered more. Same is true for basketball, or any other sport. People pay you money because they believe you’ll make them money.
#18
BurnsyCEO: I know this is hard to fathom for the reddit stupid hate train for the rich but most of them are smarter and worked harder than you when they were younger which is why they are in the place that they are in now and you’re not. So I imagine they’ll manage just fine.
#19
Hazelrigg: I’d watch it only if the experience would lead to the CEO being so traumatized that they immediately raise everyone’s wages afterwards, bankrupting the company in the process and leading to everyone having no wages at all.
#20
WasterDave: Yeah, actually. You’d have to get medieval making sure they don’t cheat. You could go to companies and swap their worst and best paid employees round.
What would happen? A lot of them would die. They would be swapping places with someone who lives in a very different part of town and they would stick out like a billionaire in Compton.
They would be surprised to discover how little time they have left once they have to commute, possibly get the kids from school, shop, cook, tidy up etc. I think some would discover they like having neighbours.
They would all talk about raising the wages of the least well paid … then none of them would actually do it.”
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
