[yetanotherjosh]

Your criticism applies to the word "debt" in the traditional financial sense as well. If you want to be more specific about how much and how severe the debt is, that is not a fault of the the term "debt" or a reason to stop using it.

1) I owe $0.25 to my 5yro niece because I lost a bet about whether grandma's pancakes would be overcooked. She will probably forget about this as soon as Harry Potter comes on the TV.

2) I owe $50 to my housemate for groceries but actually I paid the electric bill and he didn't so maybe he owes me instead?

3) I have an $8000 balance on my credit card but can pay my minimum balance plus $500 extra every month with no sweat.

4) I have $500000 left on my mortgage and didn't make my last 5 payments...

These are all still "debt" and have varying degrees of actionability. A word that implies a dimension does not need to specify the magnitude or severity on that dimension.