No Stupid Questions

That's exactly what happens; crisis capitalism wherein the upper wealth layer scoops up assets for pennies on the dollar, which it then uses to extort more wealth from the less advantaged. So even when the greater economy "turns around," there are more people who have less access to the mechanisms that have historically allowed upward economic mobility.

The 2008 financial crisis is a perfect example, and much of what we are still suffering today stems from that manufactured catastrophe. Ultimately, none of the perpetrators were held accountable, while wealth simply flowed upward, concentrating even further at the top, while the average American has seen almost none of the benefits of our productivity growth, 17 years later. Big businesses, on the other hand, had nearly 14 years of open purse monetary policy from the Fed, and could therefore operate on nearly free debt. This long period of finance junkyism has created a capability trap of today, where most businesses don't actually have many capabilities, ie don't produce, service, or generate any real commerce, AND largely refuse to invest in their employees or business functions, which is why we have been gliding downward in a spiral of enshitification and massive inflationary pressure.

Ultimately, the "good jobs" of yesteryear have been dismantled through outsourcing, arbitrary job requirements, collapsing white collar work, and decades of demonizing trades and union busting, while further roadblocks have been erected through insane education costs and a dearth of the "starter homes" that Boomers used 50 years ago to launch themselves in financial prosperity. They promptly pulled up the very ladders they climbed afterwards, ensuring no successive generations would be able to participate. Boomers mortgaged their children and children's children's futures for their own well-being. Which has continued to today.