Scott Kirby, as its CEO, runs United Airlines (UA) yet pushed pure economic nonsense in a New York Times interview. He said “wealth inequality has become a danger to our society, and we need to address that.” He declared, “We should have a national wealth tax—it won’t work by state because people will just move. And I think we should have inheritance taxes that get close to 100% at some level. I would pay them.” Kirby later called it a matter of “fairness,” claiming the wealthy can invest and “literally never pay taxes on all that growth.” He took home about $32.3 million in total compensation for fiscal 2025 while saying this.
Inequality is never a danger. As a society grows wealthier, the most productive and innovative people advance the fastest. That progress lifts everyone behind them. The poor become richer in absolute terms even while the gap widens. Growing inequality under growth is the normal result of freedom and productivity—and it makes everyone better off.
A national wealth tax plus inheritance taxes near 100% tax the most productive people. They cut investment, reduce innovation and productivity, and slow growth. Often layered on top of already high income taxes, the combination virtually confiscates earnings—a burden no one should have to bear. Allowing the most productive people to keep their wealth creates far more investment and rising living standards for everyone, including those at the lowest levels, than government seizure and spending ever does. History and basic economics show these taxes harm everyone at every level.
It is never fair to take money from people who legally and productively earned it. If you want to take that money and give it to others, you must use an argument other than fairness. Taxing the growth of successful investments chops the legs off capital formation that creates jobs and higher living standards for all.
It is astonishing that an executive at Kirby’s level could hold such economically ignorant views. Property rights and growth, not confiscation, raise living standards. Taking a partisan political stand only makes customers—including me—prefer any other airline when they have a choice. It hardly makes good business sense for United Airlines (or any competent enterprise) to alienate half its customers. As Michael Jordan famously said in connection with his own business: “Even Republicans buy sneakers.”