From a novice's perspective, it seems to me that today's critical mass of consumption and debt started at that general point in time, perhaps in the 1950's, when most people could actually pay cash for a majority of their needs (food, health care, education, entertainment, travel, etc.) and the debt they incurred in buying a typical home via a bank loan might have been 2 to 3 times their annual income (i.e. $4000 annual income buying a house that sold for $10K).
For a few decades now, and certainly applicable today, it is commonplace to see people using credit cards to buy a Starbucks or BigMac! Most people can barely afford crappy foodstuff, almost no one can pay cash for health care, college education averages $10K+ annually, entertainment and travel mostly on credit. Then when average home prices are $225K and average income is $35K, this debt to income ratio is now about 7:1!!
So...most people are deeply in debt.
Once upon a time business would only expand or acquire or merge when they earned enough profits to keep the debt portion of the deals under reasonable control. Maybe it was during the high-tech evolution or the dot.com era, but somewhere during these times, debt suddenly was a great vehicle to achieve whatever a company desired. An acquisition for $15 billion or a dot.com $500 million in debt before they see a penny of profit. This became the normal MO because everyone felt tomorrow was going to be greater than today, and that no matter how risky these business models might have been, eventually they 'might' work. And as we saw millionaires and billionaires rise from this, it was easy to overlook all the failures and focus even more on making a killing in an IPO or stock market or whatever get-rich scheme made sense that day. Too many businesses from the large to the sole-proprietorships became dependent on the line-of-credit, and this works fantastic as long as there is always positive cash flow.
So...most business is deeply in debt.
In parallel with these behaviors, as we are paying more attention today, we find nearly every local and state government, as well as the federal government, posting continuous budget deficits. This debt seems even more egregious to me than people and business because most of these debts never improve but continually get worse year after year. I submit that the primary reason why our government never seems to resolve any issue, even allowing these same issues to become more horrific each year, is because most people cannot comprehend the trillion$ that are now required, and even if they could, this quantity of non-debt money does not exist.
So...most government is deeply in debt.
Sadly, we are consuming our natural resources, we don't have enough energy, we are dependent on oil, we can't afford to consider global climate change issues, we've poisoned our air and water, and with most all events today, including natural disasters, we are reactive and not proactive. Not withstanding these issues, the USA is also adding another 100 million people during the next forty years!
So...most of our environment is deeply in debt.
Would all of this have happened with gold-backed currency or some other commodity currency? I think it would. And I think what drives this is our insatiable appetite and greed to become bigger and better and richer.
I personally cannot fathom how this fiat money system and our collective debt and our need-for-greed can be brought under control? Maybe it will take a Greater Depression to slap all of us around until we see the path we are on is not sustainable. But this kind of trauma to the USA, and it's citizens, might be a scenario in which we never climb out. For other nations, like starving vultures, are circling and waiting to make their economic kill.
In some form or fashion today, people, business, government and environment...are deeply in debt. I'm not smart enough to understand what all of this means in terms of monetary systems and I believe it is much too complex to be resolved with a simple brush-stroke solution. But I can see it has not worked well to date, and the future is looking worse, so something proactive must be done...or we must face head on whatever happens in our reactive mode and it isn't going to be pretty!
Since we have incompetence in government and leadership, and 95% of our citizenry obtaining their news and information from outlets like Oprah or Jon Stewart, along with a healthy dose of 3rd grade educations, politics, religion, and cultural and racial bias, how will it be possible to have a national discussion and general consensus on any major issue?