"<a href=""https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCkkjnpS2f8&amp;t=01h14m00s"">01:14:00</a>.  I don't find it just coincidental that an American Scholar points to America as a shining example of how a society and an economy can work. When Lex questions if we have sufficient samples from history to make better decisions", Kotkin quickly answers, "for sure, the American Revolution",   He does not make it painfully obvious, but it is clear that he is indoctrinated in the free market theories of his era. I hope that the listeners understand that Kotkin is not an economist, he is a historian. Kotkin, much like me in this thread,  is commenting way out of his depth and doing so pretty strongly on Socialism vs Captalism without giving much substance. Mostly because, I assume,  that he is not capable of speaking  about economics to anything beyond a dinner party level.