Breakfast Without Me

Unfortunately, I missed breakfast this week because I had to go to Europe and visit some friends in Switzerland and the UK. One of them is a very bright Asian woman who runs a large business in Singapore.

Most of our conversations centered on what the United States is doing in Iran and whether President Trump knows what he is doing. It was interesting listening to the Swiss perspective. They were clear on two things. First, they believe Trump needs to finish the job in Iran. Whether that means a full-scale attack or negotiating a genuine peace treaty that protects the Arab states as well as Israel was not entirely clear, but I sensed they would all support removing the current regime in Iran.

The second topic that my Swiss friends brought up was the war between Russia and Ukraine. They believe President Zelenskyy and many of his backers are quite corrupt and need to be taken down. This surprised me but I do recall Zelenskyy rising to power after a coup that ousted a Russian leaning President and that Ukraine was as full of corrupt oligarchs as was Russia.   My Zurich friends also aren't very confident about the direction of the politics and economies of the EU, especially Germany and France. On the other hand they are living in idyllic Switzerland with its strong currency and happy life.  The only "but" was they are concerned about immigration to Switzerland and want the country to somehow limit that. The government made one attempt with a national vote to limit the entire population of Switzerland to 10 million people. This failed. My friends are hoping that either something like that is approved or other means to control immigration are put into effect. A limit on population seems pretty draconian to me and I’m not sure how you would enforce it. Of course, I also don’t know any details about what the proposed law on limits actually said since the little I know is based on media headlines. The Swiss also were happy to observe that the UK has now had at least five Prime Ministers in the last either five or seven years and none of the last seven Prime Ministers have served more than two-three years (the last long-serving one was David Cameron).

What I heard from my friends in the UK was not too different as far as their struggles to find a Prime Minister who can last long enough in office to actually affect policies. They seem willing to see what the new one can do.

On another note, I spoke with a highly educated Cambridge man about Edmund Wilson's book, To the Finland Station, which traces the history of socialism through Karl Marx and Lenin. What I found interesting was that Wilson began as a devoted socialist but, after many years of study, became a believer in capitalism as the best way to preserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That is quite a transformation, especially when parts of today's Democratic Party seem to be moving back toward the idea that socialism is the answer to many of society's problems.

The question we never really answered is whether socialism has historically solved the problems of poverty and lack of education. Our discussion left us thinking that it has not.

As always, breakfast, or in this case, dinner halfway around the world, raised more questions than answers. That's probably why these conversations are worth having.

☕ Pull Up a Chair

The conversation doesn't end here.

Join us by sharing your thoughts in the comments below. We'd love to have you at the table.

Enjoying the conversation? Subscribe on our Home Page to be notified when new posts are published.