"Has it been shown to work in practice over an extended time?" Depends on what you mean by "work"--this is what things looked like in the late 1800s, early 190

"Has it been shown to work in practice over an extended time?" Depends on what you mean by "work"--this is what things looked like in the late 1800s, early 1900s, in the US. Conditions for workers were bad enough that it led to the union movement, federal workplace regulation, etc. For most people, you'd have a hard time saying it "worked", but for the handful of people who got rich during that time, sure, it "worked".