It may very well be that you were privately educated and thus never informed that the feudal system has been dead for several centuries. Its the rat thing -- its not materialism or wealth or anything similar that causes the problems, its chronic insecurity. The Faustian bargain (?) that Thatcher made with the English people was to hand everyone lottery tickets in exchange for their shared wealth. Some won, most didn't. The most important possession a person can have is time and the ability to enjoy it. People can be persuaded to give this up now for the promise of more in the future -- that's the whole point of TV shows that take ordinary people and make them into figures of fantasy -- but eventually people realize that no matter how fast they run, no matter how hard they work, they're stuck, they're tired and there's no way out except to get blind drunk or something. That's where you get your depression from (and the charismatic leaders and stuff). I've found that young English relatives of mine seem to be obsessed with having and consuming the right 'stuff'. They act as if they're wealthy -- in the tabloid sense -- but they're actually quite poor (in fact the poorer they are the more pressure they seem to be under to appear rich). Its a very screwed up culture. Oliver James writes in a style more akin to the world he is condemning, but his critics on this thread are