But somewhere along the line — some say it all changed at the Bretton Woods summit that occurred towards the end of World War II, when two global financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank, were created by the rich nations — the accumulation of massive debt became no big deal.

In fact, many say that debt is now just a fact of life, and why wouldn't they, considering that a number of rich nations — including the United States — are so far in debt there is no way to ever get out of it.

However, debt is not something to be taken lightly; debt has crushed governments since there were governments to crush, and debt still crushes today. Countries like Japan (252 percent debt-to-GDP ratio), Greece (which has teetered on national bankruptcy for years) and others are flat broke, and their situations are only getting worse. Debt will crush them eventually since today's currencies are based not on hard assets but rather on the strength (or weakness) of global promises.