Perhaps, but people seriously underrate the impact of inequality. This is the main reason why Wilkinson's talk is bound to cause controversy. Scientists claim to be objective, but the fact is most of them have pretty good incomes and they see the world from a well off person's perspective more than they see it from a scientific perspective. All kinds of inadequate data are accepted as long they don't question our basic assumptions. I know that is going to sound like radical bullshit, but i will stand by it. Because we are a conservative country, radicals are forced to confront their biases and compensate for them far more often than conservatives are. A sloppy study will convince us to believe what we already believe than an excellent study will convince us of something different. Yes, i have always believed in equality, but my beliefs were challenged in my home, in church, in grade school, by my peers, and in high school. In college i discovered that there ways by which one could supposedly set his or her biases to one side while investigating reality. It was a sad discovery that most trained people outside of the natural sciences still could not do that. I recognize that my own biases keep me from seeing what really is, but i think i am more aware of that than most people and that radicals, in general, are more aware of it than conservatives, in general. IMPPO