What actually results when economies collapse?

I am really confused about this. I watched some of the documentaries about currency and the depression in the thirties. But I still dont really understand the whole recession idea.

I guess the reason I dont see it is because we still have a huge amount of infrastructure world wide. A recession doesnt lower the amount of homes that exist... a recession doesnt destroy food crops... or anything like that. The chickens will still lay their eggs if a recession happens... to me it sounds like a bunch of b.s.

What actually happens durinig a recession to halt living conditions? The only things that I see happening during a recession (forgive my insight) is a change in the price of products, and a redistribution of weath/ownership. Because these are non-tangible... all the tangible stuff stays the same.

So is a recession just the time it takes to rebalance the prices and redistribute the weath? Cause it just seems like people cause the recession...people in places of power, who choose not to distribute the items already existing in the infrastructure.