It seems a long way off already, but President Trump’s State of the Union address went heavy on good news about the economy and unemployment, which of course had Democrats sitting stoically in their seats with incredibly sour looks on their faces.

It felt good to be able to applaud tax cuts, economic growth, and record-low unemployment numbers, but in the Washington Post Friday, George F. Will explained how good economic news is actually bad news.

Well, that certainly explains why the Washington Post was happy to publish the piece, but what is Will trying to say about good economic news giving rise to poor behavior? We’ll skip right to his conclusion:

Americans consider deferral of gratification unnatural, which it is. Time was, however, thrift was considered a virtue. People sat at kitchen tables, calculating how to bring their outlays, for living and retiring, into alignment with their incomes. But eventually many people decided: This is no fun. Instead, let’s disconnect enjoyable spending decisions from tiresome facts about resources, thereby living the way the federal government does.

We’re still not getting it. So, bad economic news would be preferable?