Obviously the Nobel laureate disagrees and I don't compare, but we keep hearing that Japan's economy is something we desperately need to avoid. Why?
Japan imports very little manufactured goods from abroad and it has an aging population which encourages investment in robotics and in joint ventures abroad. Japan basically saves and they will continue to do so unlike America where it will be a temporary moment of saving USA is highly unlikely to be able to replicate any of this long term like Japan. This means USA would only end up with the bad parts of Japans current situation.

Sure, real wages have gone down over the past decade and unemployment is high, but maybe that created an environment for technology that actually makes their lives more affordable. Growth is in technology that lowers our cost of living, rather than technology that increases it. If I'm making less and less every year and I'm able to do more and more with the smaller amount of money I have, is that so bad?
You forget that ROBOTICS and QUALITY are the two key features which Japan has which America will find extremely hard to replicate. Robotics is a feature of industry which is the first real substantial attempt at removal of the worker from the workplace this is fine in aging Japan not in 300 million people and rising USA. Quality is the next problem you have US goods are in the main crap and there is no two ways about you gave up good quality production in the 60s.

Sure jobs are lost, but at the same time, more useful, lower paying jobs are being created.
Unless the inputs and outputs are cheaper then this statement will fail.

All of this as we approach a parity with other economies, which is the end goal of globalization. A painless deflation is what we need, there is no alternative, and it will tide us over until developing economies begin to fill the gap of consumers and bring about an inflationary growth that more and more hard working human beign can partake in.

What do we all think?
There is no such thing as a painless deflation just as there is no such thing as a painless inflation either.