Happiness is merely an information-deficit state

Psychologists have discovered that people who are depressed have a more realistic view of the world and their own position in it, and can therefore make more rational decisions.

For this reason the government has introduced “depression studies” as part of the national curriculum in order to achieve its target of increasing rates of depression by at least 50% over the next 10 years. Of course other policies can help to achieve this goal, such as increasing taxes for the majority and lowering them for the richest 0.1 percent of the population. Additional funds have been identified by the Treasury to train 10000 demotivational coaches over the next two years.

An opposition spokesperson has pointed out that increasing depression in the population could lead to loss of working days through sickness, more psychiatric and physical illness, and hence greatly increased health costs, but this was dismissed by the Health Minister as unrealistically optimistic, and therefore extremely damaging political propaganda.

Paul Crichton, Munich April 2015

Note:
This piece is intended as a light-hearted commentary on some of the policies of the Cameron government. The title is taken from a quotation by the German stand-up comedian, Nico Semsrott (‘Joy is merely lack of information’).