And the wonderful thing about capitalism, one of the many wonderful things, is it creates this incredible prosperity and economic power such that you can do wonderful things. And those wonderful things create connective tissue, whether it's buying real estate in London, whether it is sending your kids to a boarding school in Switzerland, whether it is partying in St. Barts. And that connective tissue brings us together and makes the exit costs and the downside of this type of unilateral action that has taken place, this criminal action in Ukraine, creates real costs, real downsides because of the accoutrements and upside and because so many Russians now have so much to lose because of capitalism. So I think— Yeah,

it's not just the rich ones, by the way. The focus is on the oligarchs, but average people standing in line in St. Petersburg probably don't deserve what's happening to them in lots of ways. And it's because they need to protest, I guess, or do something else. It's very difficult in that country to protest. They don't just protest. They are in big trouble when they protest.

I believe the greatest deterrent to a shooting match over Taiwan right now is the iPhone. And that is there's just too many people in China and in Silicon Valley and investors all over the world that need iPhones to continue shipping. And so everyone's going to think twice before they decide to go into Taiwan. I think capitalism has extraordinary benefits. It can. It

certainly has downsides, as you know. We're very good at talking. We

are very good about talking about the downsides. We do that a lot.

Yes, that's true. That's fair. All right. So what's your fail?

My fail is that anyone had to lose at the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool. I watched this thing on Sunday with my boys. I know you're not into sports. This is soccer, correct? This is soccer or football if you're from anywhere outside of the US. But this was the FA Cup and one of my sons likes Chelsea, one of them likes Liverpool. And you may not be familiar with soccer, but it's probably the best 0-0 game ever played because they have to go to what's called a shootout. And they keep going until someone misses after five. And so that meant all 11 players, including the goalies, had to take penalty shots. And Mo Salah for Liverpool was brilliant for Mina. Lukaku on Chelsea. Edward Mende the goalie. No idea. These are incredible. Probably the best U.S. player in the world right there, Pulisic on Chelsea. Mounds, who's just an absolute delight to watch.

And didn't, speaking of Ukraine, didn't the owner of one of them? Abramovich, he owns

Chelsea. But I've even been thinking about that.

He's moved himself out of, remember, he put it into someone else's hands for a little while. And he's actually involved in the talks between Ukraine and Russia right now in Belarus. That's a connection point. And also, didn't the soccer group say they did something to

Russia that wasn't the best? You're making my point. Capitalism creates billionaire soccer owners who think twice and want to be part of the solution. And when you're vacationing and living in, you know, just outside of St. Peter's, you have less to lose. So it is great because the connective tissue is everywhere here. But anyways, but

let's just keep in mind the individual people in the Ukraine are incredibly brave. And as we sit around and complain about the stupid shit we can over the past two years, our country has, it's really amazing. I worry for them because and an overwhelming force will always eventually win this you're right brute force almost wins almost every war and this might be how they they just they don't mind all those people dying

this might be the first conflict i think that well we'll see but anyways uh my going back to my my loss here i just hated to see either team win a brilliant play by both Liverpool and Chelsea clubs. Who won? Liverpool did. Because the goalie missed a penalty kick, which you never see goalie. Poor guy. I mean, poor guy. But anyways, it was just a wonderful—I'm not into sports. All right. So my loss is that anyone had to lose the FA Cup final. Congratulations to both Liverpool and Chelsea.

You played great games. You want them both to win. They both won in a way. I sound so old like my mother.

It's a shame anyone has to lose.

Okay, Scott. Oh, my gosh. That is the show. It's so action-packed today. That's right. We'll be back on Friday for more. All

right. That's my cue. Today's show was produced by Lara Naaman, Evan Engel, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Dertot engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Emil Severo. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Thank you.