If anything, what is holding back the middle class (of which I am a proud member) is their propensity for excessive debt, particularly high-interest credit card debt

When my buddy returns this book, I am going to re-read it, and try to do so more critically. However, I found it pretty compelling first time through. One of his points corresponds with yours, perhaps. Viewed as a "top-line" phenomena, middle-class wealth has increased; his point, though, is that, when examined at the bottom-line, middle-class wealth has not increased. This he pins not only on high-interest credit card spending needed to maintain a certain higher standard of living, but on overall higher debt (mortgages) and lower savings -- an overall lower moment-to-moment wealth factor for the middle class.

But I think that many people are now mistakenly starting to assume that because corruption and criminals are present (and perhaps fairly widespread) in corporations and government, that the premises and fundamentals of market based competition are somehow flawed.

Well, the various Enron phenomena certainly provide the most striking example of things gone horribly wrong, but one of the conclusions that I drew from this book, and from recent events, is that the notion of a pure market -- and "market-based fundamentals" such as you describe -- may not really exist given the historical pay-for-play intervention of the government/s in these markets.

Anhow, I have considerably less faith in any notion of market-based societal equity than I might have had years ago.

and a living room full of obsolete electronics
now worth one-tenth what you paid for them last year.

Oh, Crap! Do I need to move the Empegs out of the living room??

Well, I will be one of the folks eating grubs and beetles later this year if I get laid off. I won't necessarily blame the CEOs of Enron and Tyco when that happens, though, as I am the poster child for a certain bachelor "live for today" lifestyle that couldn't conceive of living to retirement age. There are however, lots of folks -- with families, kids, etc -- who have tried to do better (save, economize, etc.) and who are now getting a huge shaft when it comes to their retirement prospects.

Anyhow, I *do* recommend that book, if only as a discussion vehicle. The whole "What next?" thing.