[Nevermark]

> The debt clock [0] shows each citizen is owed $100,000

Nitpick: “owes” (not owed)

> so a few years of wages lost is not the end of the world.

How would anyone pay off a few years wages, while using their wages to live, and paying interest on the balance until it is zero?

Essentially, every tax payer has a small mortgage on the past to pay off.

And the debt is growing!

Sooner or later, the debt will have to be paid down with printed money. Which both reduces the balance, and devalues the balance (due to the increased money supply).

The ability to do that at any time is the primary reason a government can run otherwise unsustainable debt without going bankrupt.