The hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases used in standard air-conditioning appliances have particularly deleterious impacts on the climate; they are much more dangerous than CO2.

Opening up to trade should increase GNP in all countries, and in poor countries inequality should go down; however, in rich countries, inequality can go up (at least before any redistribution the government might undertake).

old Soviet joke: “They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work.”

This is why the idea of a universal basic income has become so popular in Silicon Valley. Most tend to think, however, that robot-induced despair will become a problem in the future, after technologies have improved even further. But the problem of high and rising inequality has already been staring us in the face in many countries, nowhere more so

First, the gains of international trade are fairly small for a large economy like that of the United States. Second, while the gains are potentially much larger for smaller and poorer countries, there is no magic bullet. Just as we saw in the chapter on migration that opening a border widely would not be enough to get everyone to move, removing

The immigrants may not produce growth for their new communities unless they spend their earnings there; if the money is repatriated, the economic benefits of immigration are lost to the host community.

It is easy to see how we may get trapped by these strategies. We don’t like to think of ourselves as racists; hence, if we have negative thoughts about others, it is tempting to rationalize our behavior by blaming them. The more we can persuade ourselves migrants are to blame for bringing their children with them, the less we worry about the

So, if the explosion of top income inequality was just due to technological progress, the widening of the distribution of wages should have been not just for the ultra-rich but also for the merely rich. But, in fact, those making, say, between $100,000 and $200,000 a year have seen their pay increase only slightly more rapidly than the average,

the evidence scattered through this book suggests most people actually want to work, not just because they need the money; work brings with it a sense of purpose, belonging, and dignity.