While there is historical appeal in debt free money, its kind of impossible now that the contol of money is no longer held by the government, and with this rather odd system of fiat currency and fractional reserve banking/lending. So in essence you do need some debt to 'grease the wheels' so to speak, though I agree that the level of debt is out of control.
Essentially you have the situation where China is buying up American debt at an accelerated rate to keep their currency low, which unfortunately creates far too much money to lend .. hence issues like the housing bubble and subsequent collapse.
To understand a bit about money and debt there is a pretty good introduction docco ..
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-ascent-of-money/