I agree with a lot of Wilkinson’s points, largely because he has data to back them up. However the thing that he neglects to mention is the cultural differences in the countries that the data is pulled from. The USA has always had huge economic inequality. Capitalism is what this country was built from and what it has grown from. Capitalism is the main factor in economic inequality in the US. If people weren’t driven by money than there would be little to drive them, of course there is always self satisfaction and pride, but these things will only get you so far. This gap is increased even more as the inequality grows. If a man named Sam turns a little shoe store that he started himself into 3 little shoe stores then he slowly climbs on the economic ladder away from John who is also a shoe store owner but is only able to manage one store. Now Sam and John each have a son. The son in each family inherits the store from their father. John’s son saw how John ran the store and made a comfortable living from it. Now John Jr. who learned everything he knows about running a shoe store from his father, continues to run his store the same way, and he too lives a comfortable life. Sam Jr. however, learned everything he knows about running shoe stores from his father, and continues to run his three stores that he inherited from him the same way. Now unlike John Jr., Sam Jr. is not content with just a comfortable lifestyle, he wants more than that. So Sam Jr. takes his three stores and turns them into six. This continues generation after generation until Sam’s original shoe store has turned into a multibillion dollar business while John’s shoe store is still just a small but successful shoe store. This creates an ever widening gap in the economic equality of the US. This highlights why the US has a widened gap in its economic inequality.