Fox News host Tucker Carlson cited fired Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg’s multi-million dollar golden parachute as an example of why many Americans “are warming” to socialism.
Despite the fact that under Muilenburg’s leadership the company’s newest 737 airplanes were grounded “following several horrifying crashes” and “production is being suspended,” the former CEO will walk away with over $26 million and up to $50 million “depending on the final terms of the settlement,” Carlson said on Friday night’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” before noting that the average Boeing employee “might make $60,000 a year.”
“It would take a worker more than 400 years to earn as much as the supposedly-disgraced Dennis Muilenburg is getting in his severance package,” said the Fox News host. “In other words, for his work presiding over deadly airplane crashes, Muilenburg is walking off with enough cash to pay the median income for 420 U.S. households.”
Carlson discussed the stunning increase in CEO salaries, rising “by a factor of more than ten” since 1978 to a ratio of 278 to 1. “No wonder people are sending money to Bernie Sanders,” he said. “That’s what happens when you abuse the system. You discredit capitalism and big business has in many cases done exactly that.”
Lamenting the “dangerous” trend, Carlson worried that ordinary Americans would continue to “conclude that our system is rotten and not worth keeping.” (RELATED: Tucker Predicts What America Will Look Like If Democrats Win)
“Attitudes are changing fast,” said the Fox News host. “Thanks to stories like this one, Americans are warming, shockingly, to socialism. Six months from now, a socialist could be the Democratic nominee for president. In a few years, this could easily be a socialist country. What would that look like? Well of course it would be a disaster. Socialism doesn’t work. It never has, especially not in sprawling, diverse countries like ours. Under a socialist regime, hundreds of millions of Americans would see their lives get dramatically worse, while demagogic morons like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would become vastly more powerful. That’s socialism. You think America is stratified and unequal now? Wait till we get socialism.”