Sandra Pearl's post (and her great blog) accurately point up the dangers of "difference" and how easy it is to move from difference to inequality (& hierarchy). Homogeneity is a good counter to these problems. But it is also important to see that the imposing of equality on unequals has its own dangers. To me, this is most apparent in the US's valuable but limited 'equality before the law' -- valuable, because we are in important ways equal (so that, eg, a woman's testimony is equal to a man's); but also very limited, because dollars buy good representation. And, it seems to me, contemporary economics, like Becker's, is vulnerable to the same sort of criticism. Peter G. Stillman