[jazzyk]

>But if everyone avoided debt at all turns it would not be good scenario for the global economy

With the government debt over 100% GDP and unsustainable personal debt levels in the US, it is not going to end well, no matter what. In an ideal world, governments should be required to run 1-2% budget surplus, to be spent in cyclical recessions (which was the original Keynes' idea, completely hijacked by supposedly Keynesian economists (like Krugman), who insist on more government spending, despite being in debt to the eyeballs - complete lunacy.

[Swizec]

Is this like freelancers saving money to compensate for the feast/famine cycle, but for governments?

[jazzyk]

An why not? The economic cycle has been known since biblical times (7 years of prosperity, 7 years of famine). The preaches of "saving for the rainy day" have been present in most fables/folk stories in many cultures. BTW, the US is not in a cyclical recession, but a structural one and it may take years to get things fixed (see Japan).