Musgrave lays it out

From remarks by Ralph Musgrave at The Center of the Universe:

The vast bulk of money in circulation originates with private banks: that is, they “lend money into existence” as the saying goes. Thus for virtually every dollar in circulation, there is a dollar of debt.

In contrast, there is no debt in any real sense of the word associated with central bank money, or “monetary base”. But monetary base is still fiat.

I.e. if there is any “debt slavery” going on, it is attributable to private bank created money, that is, fractional reserve, not to fiat money as such.

Let me add something.

For virtually every dollar put into circulation, a dollar of debt is created. But if somebody loses a dollar in the couch cushions, or saves a dollar, or spends it out-of-country, the dollar disappears from circulation. But the debt still exists. And if that kind of thing happens for a long time, like 60 years or so, what you get is a lot less money than debt.

And that situation, that imbalance between money and debt, that is what builds up once in a lifetime or so. And that's when you get the big financial crisis like we got, and all the troubles that come with it.