Oh, snap!

Will Wilkinson does a number on Helen Rittelmeyer:

I think the redemptive power of suffering is a fact about the world; it’s just true.

I don’t want to be mean to Ms. Rittelmeyer, because I don’t want her to like it. But the standards for determining what’s just true here are… elusive. . . . Wealthier, happier people are more creative and productive. Springs of action are unbent by depression and the demoralization of poverty. I know, I know. Booooring. But it is, as they say, just true. However, there is no second guessing the redemptive power of making things up.