>>24
Wealth and debt are, in the current system, inseparable from each other. All money that exists in circulation is owed by someone to someone. If all debt were paid off, there would be no money. The major problem, though, is that debt, by its very nature, incurs interest. What this means is that debt will always exceed the wealth available, since all wealth is incurring interest on some account somewhere. I'm sure you've all heard this somewhere before (zeitgeist lol).
The net result is that SOMEONE somewhere is going to default on their debt. We may come to a day when the US tries to pay off its debt, and finds that there simply isn't enough money in existence.
It's possible for non-inflationary, asset-backed currencies, like the greenback, to exist, but they have their own host of problems.
I think periods of prosperity are inevitably linked to periods of upheaval, when the system finally collapses.