The deflationary spiral only starts to set in when the increase in wealth due to deflation competes with the potential increase in wealth from trying to use capital productively.
So it isn't necessarily a problem if you can wait a year and then buy a better computer with the same money. But it IS a problem if your best investment strategy for that year would have been to put the money under the mattress instead of loaning it out, investing in stocks, or some other activity that keeps money circulating.
As for a hyper-inflationary disaster, the exact monetary injection you use to stave off deflation can also create inflation. This is why central banks have such a challenge on their hands. They are trying to balance the economy between nasty extremes, while trying to satisfy contradictory goals.
So it isn't necessarily a problem if you can wait a year and then buy a better computer with the same money. But it IS a problem if your best investment strategy for that year would have been to put the money under the mattress instead of loaning it out, investing in stocks, or some other activity that keeps money circulating.
As for a hyper-inflationary disaster, the exact monetary injection you use to stave off deflation can also create inflation. This is why central banks have such a challenge on their hands. They are trying to balance the economy between nasty extremes, while trying to satisfy contradictory goals.