What can I say but: people continue to baffle me.
Edit: actually I do have one other thing to say. It's quite a coincidence that the conditions you laid out happen to be those that were met in the US right about the time that book came out. Feels like it might have been working backwards from the conclusion.
That is absolutely a fair critique. In fact, more than fair, I would say.
I'm not even defending it. I'm just describing the mainstream ethical foundation used today.