The book by Russian-American economist Igor Birman is a biased, but supported by serious scientific argumentation, attempt to summarize the practical implementation of the socialist idea over the last century, to separate myths from reality, and to evaluate the pros and cons of socialism compared to capitalism. As is clear from the title of the book, the author sees greater development potential in the capitalist mode of production, which has also changed dramatically in the years since the writing of the programmatic works of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. A significant place in the book is devoted to Russia, which has gone through a socialist experiment, and is now conducting a capitalist experiment on itself. Published in the author's edition