Debt pulls future income into the present, so yes, the $38T is what we owe to our future selves. The thing is, your present self already knows if your future self is owed something (you own a bond). So writing it off is taking that person's money and not giving it back in the future like you promised. That does obviously does not go over well, plus it has unpleasant secondary effect. What you do is that you print more money and inflate it away.
Everyone is in denial about the whole situation. The sensible solution is probably the FED targeting a higher inflation rate than the 2% they would prefer and work it out slowly. Nobody is sensible at the moment, so we risk having either out of control inflation for a shorter time, or a lot of people lose money. If you have too much debt, people are going to lose money. The question is the amount of pain (and the collateral pain from secondary effects) that goes with it.
Everyone is in denial about the whole situation. The sensible solution is probably the FED targeting a higher inflation rate than the 2% they would prefer and work it out slowly. Nobody is sensible at the moment, so we risk having either out of control inflation for a shorter time, or a lot of people lose money. If you have too much debt, people are going to lose money. The question is the amount of pain (and the collateral pain from secondary effects) that goes with it.