Kate E. Pickett

“More power-efficient washing machines or better insulated houses will help the environment; but they also cut our bills, and that immediately means we lose some of the environmental gain by spending the saved money on something else. As cars have become more fuel-efficient we have chosen to drive further. As houses have become better insulted we have raised standards of heating, and as we put in energy-saving light bulbs the chances are that we start to think it doesn't matter so much leaving them on.”
― Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better

“How much people's desire for more income is really a desire for more status has been demonstrated in a simple experiment. People were asked to say whether they'd prefer to be less well-off than others in a rich society, or have a much lower income in a poorer society but be better off than others. 50% of the participants thought they would trade as much as half their real income if they live in a society in which they would be better off than others.”
― Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better