I get so very tired of the common assumption that some sort of government action back in 08 or thereabouts could have “saved” this money.
In actual fact, much of this “wealth” existed (to the extent it did) only because government interventions of various types artificially inflated value of real estate. It WAS going to crash sometime, like any other bubble. The longer you keep it inflated, the greater the damage when it finally pops.
If an individual, through chance or foresight, timed exit from the real estate market wisely, they got to keep the funny money. But this option, by definition, was not available to most.
No you had to be in the in crowd like inside the belt way