Individual income vs. government borrowing/spending are not the same thing.
Your analogy, corrected:
Today Bob's parents borrowed $100 from Alice and Bob earned $5 on his own. Bob thinks he became $5 richer, Alice is owed $100, and Bob's parents now have more debt.
Two things:
1. Bob's personal debt rose over past years too.
2. Bob's parents are the money issuers. When they decide they can't return their debt they probably make this money worth zero.
Whatever, I'm done with that thread, as HNers don't seem to approve :)
I think the parent meant that the U.S. Government has borrowed more and more. It seems to me that you're talking about citizens being richer while parent is talking about the government being poorer.
Since the 80s median family income has increased by about 1/3, adjusted for inflation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_Income_Distr...