Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, is now facing criticism for expressing support for a national wealth tax and inheritance taxes that come close to 100%, with a senior official with the Justice Department joining in the backlash and taking jabs at the airline’s service, which has taken a pretty solid beating over the last few years.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, who is the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, shared her thoughts about the controversy with a post published on social media platform X that also contained reflections on her recent experience flying United. “The WiFi didn’t work on my last two flights,” Dhillon said.
Her comment on the less-than-stellar service she received aboard a United flight, followed remarks made by Kirby in a recent interview with the New York Times, where he warned that growing wealth inequality poses a true “danger” to American society. And of course, his solution to that is taxation and wealth redistribution.
“We should have a national wealth tax — it won’t work by state because people will just move,” Kirby told the Times, according to Fox Business. “And I think we should have inheritance taxes that get close to 100 percent at some level. I would pay them.” The statement has drawn significant attention to Kirby’s own compensation as the company’s CEO.
Kirby received $32.3 million in total compensation for the fiscal year 2025, which included salary, stock awards, and performance incentives. The report revealed that total is 334 times more than the $96,670 median employee compensation that has been reported by the airline. Going beyond his tax proposals, Kirby also discussed pricing practices in the interview.
He offered a defense for the airline’s decision to charge passengers more for certain seating options. “There are some customers who want to sit in a window seat or a better seat, and that costs money to deliver,” Kirby told the outlet. Unsurprisingly, his comments led to severe criticism from folks on social media.
Some individuals responded to his tax proposals by promising they would no longer fly United. Others urged Kirby to stay in his lane and focus on getting ticket prices down and improving customer service. One individual said that Kirby needs to focus on “Flight safety, price, timeliness,” adding, “How about we start with not charging $500 for basic 2 hour domestic routes?”
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Historically speaking, whenever additional taxation has come up for serious discussion, the most important point made against them is that they will ultimately disincentivize folks from working hard to better their station in life. Part of wealth accumulation is to ensure that your family is financially secure after your death. A massive inheritance tax like the one being proposed by Kirby would make that impossible. Without being able to accumulate wealth and pass it on to future generations, many folks will stop innovating and thus society will be less wealthy as a whole, not just monetarily, but in ideas, services, and products as well.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video