Sure, I can imagine a large number of Americans having their health care costs sink way below the level that is considered customary today - how much health care did many of the workers building houses over the last five years receive? And these were literally millions of workers and their families, who just happened to be illegal. Didn't stop them from making an economic contribution, and to an extent, their being willing to work for less, not only their wages but in terms of legal rights or health care, meant that many Americans had to compete at the same level.

As for food - that is a kicker, I'll admit. For the first time in human history, we are actually burning food intentionally, instead of eating it. Hard to tell whether we are willing to starve the poor to death to keep driving to the mall (regardless of how many die, it won't keep the suburbs humming), but the question of demand destruction is at least as open as the question of supply destruction. Add in climate change, and the picture is grim. I think there is little question that the percentage of income devoted to food will rise towards its historical average - for a round number, let's use 5 times more expensive than today. Which means that a lot of other economic activity will be pushed aside, as food is a basic good. The competition for that remaining income will be fierce, to put it mildly.

Deflationary spirals are arguably not measured in monetary terms, but instead in social terms - are the number of jobs shrinking, is the wage being paid less able to maintain an accustomed lifestyle, do people start living differently because there is less available?

I still lean towards deflation, if only because it has been so long since it last occurred in America. But I don't think it will be well measured in terms of dollars, and that stagflation is almost as equally likely. What deflation means in this view is that one is demonstrably poorer in material terms, as are the other people around one.

Of course, poverty is relative - I buy things which last, generally reparable, thus lasting even longer, instead of always buying items that are trashed after a brief period. If I understand current American norms, this means I'm strange, if not a social outcast. And that this way of life is to be avoided, since it is a sign of failure, compared to buying ever more stuff to be stored in ever larger homes by ever larger consumers with ever larger debt.

Bankrupt means not buying anything, regardless of price, and I think Americans have essentially bankrupted themselves. Not all Americans, of course, but the vast majority, have been actively involved in an ever growing cycle of consumption and debt, one which is likely to end, and when it ends, it will be defensible to consider it as 'deflation.' The process hasn't started yet, though possibly, the first glimpses of how it will play out can be imagined.

I think you miss the distinction between nominal and real prices. In a deflation, nominal price will fall, but that does not necessarily imply that things become more affordable. Real prices are adjusted for changes in the money supply (ie inflation/deflation, which are monetary phenomena). If the money supply is falling faster than nominal prices, then prices will increase in real terms and $4000 a year for health care then may be far less affordable than $12000 is now. I would expect a similar dynamic in real estate - I think house prices will come down by 90% before a deflationary depression ends, but the remaining 10% would be less affordable than 100% is now under conditions of severe economic hardship and little or no access to credit.

The same thing is likely to happen across the board when money is scarce and hard to come by. Nominal prices will be low because there will be little money and essentially no credit, and many assets will be offered for sale at once by people trying to raise money. Most people simply won't be in a position to take advantage of low nominal prices (an opportunity is an opportunity precisely because so few are in a position to take advantage of it). It's the converse of the easy money circumstances we've enjoyed for years, where increases in the money supply have led to increasing asset prices (while downward pressure on wages and prices due to global trade and wage arbitrage kept those low).