Let's play a game

Many people wish to swap places with others thinking it would make living easier for them. Some people try to stay content with their current circumstances by thinking about how others are in way worse positions, and they themselves are grateful for however much they have in comparison.

How would either of these people feel if they were to randomly swap places with anyone else in the world? Regardless of if they are now in better or worse conditions. How would the other person feel? How much of a chance is there that both of the affected people end up liking their new swapped lives better? What if one of them can’t bare losing their old life? You could also add in the aspect of time, where people from different eras can swap places, but that would tie in individual personalities even deeper with the end result.

Each person’s exact circumstances and wishes change what they would feel. Some people have irreplaceable things like family, while others might just prefer their old lifestyle, but for likely everyone the change would be jarring at first. I’m more talking about long-term feelings regarding this though. Would an average person swapping with another average person make either of them happier than they would’ve been in their old life?

But there is a more basic question here: survival. Could a swap like this occur to any 2 random people, and in the end they both survive? Could you live out your new life - enjoying it, being hopeful it gets better, or just feigning indifference - without either of you killing yourself?

There’s also the question of how the proportions for the swap are determined. After all, it’s not like the rich and the poor are balanced. There are war fewer people in luxury than there are people suffering proportionally. As such, an average person swapping lives with any random human out there in the world would probably end in detriment for that individual, but still, would it be enough to drive them to the edge? Would the person who swapped out of the “worse condition” even feel like they got a better life?

I wonder if a swap like this were to occur, would they both be happy? Sad? Unconcerned? Would they both be able to live out their new lives or just give up, assuming they had lost everything already? If there were infinite simulations of the earth and its humans, and every human was swapped with every other human, what would the stats be like? Would the “Average Happiness” improve throughout the swaps? What about major events, would history itself change course often?

In the poll down below I want you to pick what you think is most likely to happen if you were to swap with someone else. If you want to elaborate or something please do so in the comments, I love comments mmfgh…