Feeling bad about someone else misfortune?

I recently share with you how some friends visited me and for some reason the money/finance/crisis topics are popping up more frequently than before. Not that they were less important in the past but as the numbers are raising or falling people tend to look for another alternative to secure their future, some other are just seeing the way to avoid loosing.
You are always affected when there is a crisis, I kind of think like it in a way that was describe it by a Zen related book I recently read, it is up to you to think of the event as the best possible thing that happen. So we were discussing the possible outcomes of it.
One friend who works at a computer store and he really likes to trade, buy, repair and mostly own every possible new hardware or gaming console, mentioned that he is very worried about the possible bankrupt of the business or at least closing the physical business to an online store, the latter being the most likely scenario (and depending on how you see it a very positive transformation). He told me he might even start looking for a new job for the possible outcome. He has spend more that I could ever budget for gadgets and gaming consoles, stuff he could possibly sell in case of an emergency but with a loss as the kind of items will be loose value in the event of an economical crisis.
Another friend of mine and her husband were discussing how to tackle their specific transportation need, both need a car with different specs and they are thinking to sell their current cars to own 1 single car that possibly will sold the off road and fuel efficiency needs, which seems to be a very interesting project. We were also talking how the possible crisis will happen in a short/mid term and that it is very likely that we will look for foreclosure homes, properties or anything that will come with a discount because those are the times were you can get to buy low.
We sort of agreed that it was sad to think of that scenario of taking properties on sale that belong to someone else that did not managed it properly, to what I stated that we weren't the ones traveling through Europe or changing to a brand new car instead of down paying or even getting out of debt in the first place.
What do you think are the best steps to follow prior a possible economic slowdown and what are the opportunities that you will probably try to take advantage to secure a profit/income source in the future? Will you feel bad about the ones loosing their assets?