Real estate, automobiles, credentials/degrees, and businesses are all assets that would counterbalance their debt. (Credentials and degrees are not liquid, but you'd be hard pressed to argue that a doctor's license isn't worth many dollars).
The much more likely situation is a person with no assets or money and some credit card debt. Indeed, a person with simply no money is better off than such a person.
Right, and they're arguing that the quoted statistic isn't counting credentials and degrees as assets, because there's not a convention for how to value them.
Another example of your logic, any MD with a huge student debt is worse off than pretty much everyone in undeveloped world?
Or a person with a business loan but a successful business.