I think the difference is that those places might have hired the pretty 16 year old but before they were outsourced, the factory would be more interested in the other guy. It used to be anyone who wanted to get ahead could pretty much do so by getting some kind of job --- not all as salesclerks. The ordinary guy could make it in this country --- you didn't have to be extremely skilled or extremely anything. They also didn't have to compete with every third world peon for their job.
Millions upon millions of ordinary "guys" are doing it every day of the week. However they are the ones that aren't whining to the government to "save their jobs".
They also didn't have to compete with every third world peon for their job.
No in the not so distant past they were competing with slaves, then Chinese coolies, then the Irish immigrants, and on and on and on.
Men and boys, with no educations worked in coal mines for extremely low wages. They also worked in abattoirs and steel plants and manufacturing plants.
How far back do you want to go?
Up until very recently,most people didn't have more than one bathroom, and I'm talking about only 50 years ago.They didn't have more than one T.V. set. Kids didn't want 100 dollar(or the equivalent ) sneakers.
For all of the moaning and groaning, on FR, about outsourcing and H1B workers, there ARE plenty of jobs out theres and not low paying ones.