Yeah, I've had similar conversations with them. I hear they call people like us "deadbeats" in the credit card industry. They consider our lack of debt to be downright unpatriotic.

Barter is a wonderful idea, Don, one that people should probably make considerably more use of. People in a community could circumvent the money system itself for many things by issuing their own "credits" through a local organization that traded goods and labour of all sorts through exchanging x amount of credits and recording it at the local credit exchange. (and some communities have done so). The government doesn't care for the idea, because they can't figure out how to tax it. Banks don't care for it either.

"What if they issued a currency and nobody showed interest?" (Same as "What if they gave a war and nobody came?") A population can only be enslaved by money if they allow themselves to be by first surrendering to it...and using it for all their transactions.