> There are countries with higher median wealth than the US and there are countries with a higher debt to GDP ratio - Japan and Canada have both.

All irrelevant.

> Really it just seems like printing money is much safer than people think

It is safer when your currency is the one most other countries are indebted in and buy their goods in. USD increasing in value causes economic crises around the world, USD decreasing in value causes economic booms around the world. All because countries are paying their debts in dollars.

> and everyone is just afraid of inflation because it happened once in the 70s due to an energy crisis.

A whole lot of things happened in the 70s. Like the USD going off the gold standard completely, other countries starting to get rid of it for this reason and the establishment of the petro dollar to get it under control again. The 70s showed how things start unraveling when USD status is threatened.