I'm sorry, but you're so very wrong.
US haven't ever grown any richer since ~1980s. They just borrowed more with each month.
You should see US trade deficit and annual budget for proofs.
Unfortunately, a lot of this type of wealth generation isn't tracked by most economic measurements. Improvements in the quality of automobiles, entertainment systems, communication systems, etc. have been tremendous over the past decades, but almost none of that surfaces in statistics, mostly because to some degree such improvements are subjective and hard to measure quantitatively.
Individual income vs. government borrowing/spending are not the same thing.
Your analogy, corrected:
Today Bob's parents borrowed $100 from Alice and Bob earned $5 on his own. Bob thinks he became $5 richer, Alice is owed $100, and Bob's parents now have more debt.
Two things:
1. Bob's personal debt rose over past years too.
2. Bob's parents are the money issuers. When they decide they can't return their debt they probably make this money worth zero.
Whatever, I'm done with that thread, as HNers don't seem to approve :)
I think the parent meant that the U.S. Government has borrowed more and more. It seems to me that you're talking about citizens being richer while parent is talking about the government being poorer.
Heck most smart phones have more computational power than a 1980 computer.
So yes, the US has grown richer (money != wealth).