The problem with your household analogy is that it is not the "right" thing to do in all circumstances.
For example, in our household, if we had followed your plan we would be in a much worse situation. When the recession hit, we tried to keep on our employees as long as we could, but eventually ended up having to close our business altogether (and become a 2 person freelance company). Even though we were global, competition was fierce for the few clients still operating, which drove prices down to the point that we bid 1/5th of our pre-financial collapse prices for our product. (100,000 to 20,000 for the same work). It was not enough to pay the bills.
Now, we could have quit our profession and gotten jobs at Home Depot or Walmart (and we did do things like mow lawns and do whatever it took to keep our heads above water) which might have landed us salaries in the $40-60k range. But we did something else instead -- we took out loans to go back to school (so our skills would be state of the art in the work we loved) and to upgrade our equipment -- believing that the economy would eventually recover and wanting to position ourselves with the most competitive advantages possible.
The Home Depot option would have allowed only so much room for growth for our long-term household income (although our budget would have stayed balanced). But because of loans (debt) that allowed us to improve our "infrastructure" we are now making so much money that not only will all debt be paid off by the end of one year, the long-term outlook puts us ahead by almost 5 times as much income.
Developing countries are able to use the latest technologies to build more cost-effective buildings and systems because they are starting from scratch with what is currently available. By contrast, many of our systems (highways, bridges, buildings, energy, schools, etc) were built by our wonderful forward-thinking previous generations during the 1940s onward ...are now outdated, crumbling or inefficient. Those who wanted to take on debt wanted to spend what it would take to make the improvements needed to keep America on the leading edge, so that we could keep competing at the highest levels (and continue to attract the best and brightest to work and live in this country).
My father, a businessman, said that one of the first rules of success is that "you have to spend money to make money" (you can't let yourself fall behind in service or quality and must continually upgrade and make improvements -- or you will lose customers and the competition will pass you by). Those who insist on a balanced budget as our only priority seem to miss the bigger picture entirely.