Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think many think articles like this intentionally make the numbers seem as scary as possible. Negative currency (debt) is a good thing for most people. It is what enables people to buy cars and houses or go to college. Of course, many individuals will get in over their head but on the whole it is a positive thing that individuals can take out mortgage and owe more on the house than they put down. The same goes for…
Exactly. Most people have significantly more than $86k debt in the form of a mortgage. I owe a lot more than $86k on the mortgage for my home. I have more assets than debt and I could pay off my mortgage but it's simply not the best way for me to spend my capital. Additionally, I suspect this article is using a median value for "average income" but a mean value for "average debt." This paints a misleading picture.
Second, while it is useful to think of debts in terms of things like mortgages and auto loans, most of this global debt is government debt. Think locally - your local town may need 50 million dollars to build a new school. They aren't increasing taxes for one year to build the school they instead take on 50 million dollars of debt in the form of bonds. So even if you have no personal debt you still have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt which the government has taken out which can reasonably be repaid overtime.