United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby gave a wide-ranging, often provocative interview to the New York Times, defending fees for aisle and window seats and countering the rise in airfares by asserting "it's expensive to fly airplanes."

"There are customers that pay more that get more," Kirby, 59, said in the interview that ran Oct. 18.

But he struck a decidedly more populist note on the topic of wealth inequality — which he brought up when the Times asked him about waning trust in CEOs and his responsibility in dispelling it. Here's his full answer:

"Wealth inequality has become a danger to our society, and we need to address that," he said. "We should have a national wealth tax — it won...