For all those who think that a high debt-to-GDP ratio is fine (put the meme picture here) and that the US will simply follow the Japan scenario for several decades at least (nothing great, but nothing catastrophic), I highly recommend to read this Lyn Alden's article: https://www.lynalden.com/economic-japanification/

To summarize it: Japan and US are in two very different situations, the former is one of the largest world's creditor nations, while the latter is THE largest world debitor nation. The reserve currency status, while quite useful for kicking the can down the road, makes situation exponentially more dangerous when the can will hit a wall.