I have only begun to watch and must interject; I will probably have more to add later.

At 0:48, Professor Wilkinson shows a chart of Life Expectancy vs Gross National Income per head.

In the 18 seconds the chart appears, the audience has time to think “Those lucky Japanese! I should eat more rice” or “Wow, Norway is just as rich as USA” or “Hm, I didn’t know Israel was that poor.”

The professor says

And you see the countries on the right, like Norway and the USA, are twice as rich as Israel, Greece, Portugal on the left. And it makes no difference to their life expectancy at all.

This is a fair description of the chart. Almost all the countries shown have life expectancy between 78 and 80 years.

I wonder if anyone in the audience thought “Hm, what about Bangladesh? Where is Nigeria?”

When discussing bicycle helmet laws, or mandatory retirement age, or the effect of salt on diet, it is customary to talk about the “Western” nations, English-speaking North America and Western Europe, that have roughly similar values and developmental history. Why do we leave out the rest of the world?

Because the rest of the world is relatively poor. Poverty makes life outcomes worse. It is ridiculous to talk about bike helmets when people are fighting malaria. Among wealthy nations, we debate whether the latest exercise fad can make us even healthier and live even longer.

I can’t find a chart image similar to the one in this presentation, strangely. They all look like this chart of the Preston Curve:

By focusing on the wealthy countries in the top right, Wilkinson conceals the obvious relationship between income and life expectancy. Gapminder has a colorful PDF chart.

Maybe he will point this out a little later in the presentation?

I feel like an impostor all the time. This guy is on TV, his book has appeared in ten languages, he studied at the London School of Economics. I publish in one language on Hubski.com while wearing pajamas in my bedroom. By any reasonable standard of authority, it is ridiculous that I would have anything to add to the conversation.