pip install brings in lots of dependencies

[Bryce Nesbitt]

Installation of pip appears to bring in a lot of dependencies.
Many of us just use pip to make installing python packages easier.
It it possible to not bring in g++ and the entire development environment?

# sudo apt-get install python-pip
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  build-essential dpkg-dev fakeroot g++ g++-4.8 gcc gcc-4.8
  libalgorithm-diff-perl libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl libalgorithm-merge-perl
  libasan0 libatomic1 libc-dev-bin libc6-dev libdpkg-perl libfakeroot
  libfile-fcntllock-perl libgcc-4.8-dev libitm1 libstdc++-4.8-dev
  linux-libc-dev make manpages-dev python-colorama python-distlib
  python-html5lib python-requests python-setuptools python-urllib3
Suggested packages:
  debian-keyring g++-multilib g++-4.8-multilib gcc-4.8-doc libstdc++6-4.8-dbg
  gcc-multilib autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb gcc-doc
  gcc-4.8-multilib gcc-4.8-locales libgcc1-dbg libgomp1-dbg libitm1-dbg
  libatomic1-dbg libasan0-dbg libtsan0-dbg libbacktrace1-dbg libquadmath0-dbg
  glibc-doc libstdc++-4.8-doc make-doc python-lxml python-genshi
Recommended packages:
  python-dev-all
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  build-essential dpkg-dev fakeroot g++ g++-4.8 gcc gcc-4.8
  libalgorithm-diff-perl libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl libalgorithm-merge-perl
  libasan0 libatomic1 libc-dev-bin libc6-dev libdpkg-perl libfakeroot
  libfile-fcntllock-perl libgcc-4.8-dev libitm1 libstdc++-4.8-dev
  linux-libc-dev make manpages-dev python-colorama python-distlib
  python-html5lib python-pip python-requests python-setuptools python-urllib3
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ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: python-pip 1.0-1build1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-65.98-generic 3.2.60
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-65-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.6
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Jun 27 16:11:10 2014
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: python-pip
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2013-11-11 (228 days ago)

[Bryce Nesbitt (bryce2)]

Note: python-virtualenv brings in the same dependencies.
If it's possible to get pip or virtualenv without all the bulk, that would be nice.

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

build-essential is only recommended. installed by default, but you can opt out not to install recommendations