> This being Ycombinator one can consider the example of how any crazy idea gets funding during good times but during hard times the ideas that actually have legs remain. ;-)
Remember economics isn't a morality play where bad things are secretly good. The general principle is that a bad economy only has bad results and there's no reason to want one.
Bad times are named "bad" for a reason of course, but there are many sayings - sayings being based on human observations throughout history - along the lines of "every cloud has a silver lining".
One that conceptually rhymes with the "bad times lead to good people" saying is "bad manners lead to good laws".