re: hopeless
Apartheid South Africa "functioned." It was more prosperous, productive, and wealthier than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa combined, and blacks there, even under apartheid, were better off than in the rest of Africa. Better off than they are now, for that matter.
A slave plantation "functioned." So did a Nazi work camp, or a sweatshop.
You people have fallen so far into the "anti" mode that you are not being very careful where you end up standing.