 People like to argue with me a lot on Twitter but a lot of what they have to say is just plain wrong and mean Limiting my responses to 280 characters won't do a lot of these justice. So let's get into it Here's an example I tweeted in Finland they have an average 161 weeks of paid family leave from others in the United States It's zero zero weeks. I got a bunch of replies on that one Move there then I'm 75 years old Dr. Phil McCracken as much as I'd like to move to Hungary to take advantage of their parental leave I do fear my childbearing days are behind me Another response to my paid leave tweet Isn't the u.s model built on individual businesses setting their own policies and letting workers make choices as to where they want to work Versus government deciding for them Alternatively, if Sweden's plan is so appealing move there become a citizen and enjoy the benefit employers in the United States have to abide by basic wage benefit and workplace safety laws And regulations to do business such as the abysmally low federal minimum wage Anti-discrimination laws overtime rules child labor bans OSHA regulations now adding paid family leave to the list Is just common sense. Not only would it help workers cope with the cost of caregiving But studies show it would also help businesses by boosting employee retention productivity and labor force Participation, this is the richest country in the world in the history of the world And yet we're the only rich country who doesn't offer paid leave. I mean talk about American exceptionalism Lastly parents in the united states shouldn't have to move halfway across the world to get the absolute basics That the rest of the industrialized world provides I tweeted So let me get this straight. John Deere is projected to make 5.7 billion dollars in profits this year But the company can't afford to raise wages and benefits for its workers And I got this as a response John Deere is a cyclical company sales are up one year down the next This means the company must have a cost structure including labor costs that it can maintain during the down years And not just a record year employees won't take a pay cut and benefit cut when sales are down Um, you know what isn't cyclical husky fan 335 john deere's enormous executive salaries Every year in 2020 the company laid off hundreds of workers. Well its ceo's pay increased by 160 This spike in CEO pay isn't Just a result of a record year of earnings This is a systemic problem the average ceo in america now earns 351 times as much as a typical worker that ratio was 21 to 1 in 1965 back to john deere The company has spent over 1.7 billion dollars on stock buybacks in the first nine months of 2021 That's a billion with a b. Here's another tweet of mine One had with 31 new billionaires were created during an economically Catastrophic pandemic does anyone else see a problem with this picture? Here's a reply What is the problem with new billionaires? They didn't create the system under which it is possible to thrive And they certainly didn't create the fed policy that caused asset prices to explode higher Actually john america's billionaires have helped create the system in which they thrive They lobby congress for huge corporate tax breaks and subsidies and to keep our tax system riddled with loopholes that they Can exploit they bankrupt politicians who have systematically gutted the irs So the agency doesn't have the resources to audit them sure technically today's billionaires didn't create the system But they use their enormous wealth to keep rigging it in their favor at the expense of everybody else Including you john here's another reply. I think it's great 131 new billionaires probably a lot of new millionaires too. Good for them I don't get upset when other people do well. Maybe you shouldn't either resentment is a really ugly look Trying to help other people do well is kind of my Whole thing It's why I became labor secretary decades ago and why I've continued sounding the alarm about inequality at the youthful age Of 75 the trouble comes when a small cluster of people hoard Resources in a way that means millions will be without food shelter job security or education You know, they're basically only five ways to accumulate a billion dollars in america Profiting from the monopoly insider trading political payoffs fraud or inheritance In fact, we made a video that explains these five billionaire tricks in detail. It's called should we abolish billionaires? Sorry if I've already spoiled the ending and yes, I do Resent the fact that elon musk the richest man in the history of the world pays a lower overall tax rate than the median us worker pays You should too Okay, here's another response to my tweet. I see the problem with this picture the complete lack of thought between the arrows We need universal pre-k. We need paid leave and medical leave out. We need lower drug prices This is not some progressive wish list. These are the absolute basics The us is dramatically lagging behind the rest of the industrialized world. Here's some of the replies I agree, but I always think these should be paid for with a broad base tax that everyone pays We all benefit when the next generation is healthy educated with firm family values It should be no different than paying school taxes. Well, I'm with you that we all benefit from all these policies Where I differ is who should pay for them? Every day americans already pay their fair share of taxes. You know who doesn't? America's 745 billionaires who got 70 percent richer during the greatest global health crisis in the century Their wealth gains during the pandemic alone 2.1 trillion dollars Could finance all of biden's 1.75 trillion dollar build back better plan with plenty left over for them to Toss skittles in zero gravity. The wealthy and privileged have socked away a record amount of the nation's wealth They must now pay their fair share to fix the rest of the nation Uh, here's another response America is a center-right country. The voters have rejected everything you propose Please can we get a fact check on this? Thank you. 88 percent of americans want to lower drug prices 84 percent want to expand medicare And 73 support guaranteed paid family medical leave. Yeah, this is what I thought most of the public is is with us on this Don't let the corporate media fool you into thinking democrats have gone too far to the left The real problem is they've so far failed to deliver far too many of them are in the pockets of billionaires and corporations These moneyed interests don't care about political affiliations. They only care about protecting their bottom lines The real divide in america isn't right versus left. It's democracy versus oligarchy That's it for this round of taking on your tweets. Please feel free to keep arguing with me on twitter arby reich And you can also make my phone go on facebook tiktok instagram and youtube at the same handle try to be nicer though