15% People Depressed: British Government to Give Happiness Lesson in School

Great Britain (the UK) is one of the richest countries in the world. The people of the UK have everything that they can fancy- good income, political stability, latest gadgets, traveling to the cool destinations. Yes, everything except happiness. So, British government is seriously thinking of introducing happiness lessons in school. MercatorNet has an interesting report about with the title: FOCUS ON CHRISTMAS Auditing our happiness stocks. It seems that happiness level in UK is in all time low.
The report said:

In Britain, according to one expert, about 15 per cent of the population suffers
from depression or anxiety, and more than a million mentally ill people receive
incapacity benefits. Richard Layard, a member of the House of Lords, is an
emeritus professor of economics and the government's "happiness tsar", as the
British press like to call such people. His book, Happiness: Lessons from a new
science, appeared earlier this year.

15% suffering from depression- not a good thing. Over 1 million mentally ill people is also not a healthy feature for one of the most developed and richest countries on earth. Britain has 60.2 million people. So, if one million of them are mentally ill then you can easily understand that UK should not score highly in any happiness index. Perhaps the worst thing is that many school children are unhappy. So, government officials have started to take this matter seriously. The report also stated:

Another of his ideas is to tackle incipient unhappiness early in life. To this
end he has approved a pilot scheme for British schools in which teachers will
give happiness lessons to 11-year-olds, using role play and breathing exercises
-- among other things -- to teach the children how to build self-esteem and keep
calm in the face of traumas like their parents divorcing. The teachers are being
trained by leading American happiness specialist Professor Martin Seligman.
Since at least 10 per cent of children in the UK are said to suffer from severe
depression, this is certainly worth a try.

It is certainly a very sad picture. I really wish that school children could find some more happiness than they have now in the UK. The main problem is too much consumerism. A lot of people have a lot of money and a lot of goods are available in supermarket shelves. All you need to do is to go to the supermarket and buy the things you want and then enjoy them. Perhaps the British people are doing it too much. So, they are losing their relationship with normal and natural happy things. However, the funny thing is that British government has hired an American expert on happiness- as if Americans are the happiest people on the world. Unfortunately, they are not. You can read this article- Bhutan is Happier than USA: 15 Reasons- Why?- in this regard.

This is the natural by product of consumerism. Now, the British people have fewer sources than the past to get happy. Of course, there is no short cut and quick solution to this problem. Buddhism teaches us that happiness means conquering sadness in life. I guess the British people should start reading about Buddhism and then can find some comfort in their lonely and miserable depressed life.