The ordinary guy could make it in this country --- you didn't have to be extremely skilled or extremely anything. 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.
It's people like you who always condemn the ordinary American who is fearing joblessness, laughing at them for not wanting to work like a Chinese slave --- you can't tell me that Americans don't want to work --- I was walking down the hall at college tonight --- and an older American-type woman was on her cell phone carrying books to class --- excitingly telling someone she just found out she finally got a job. The look on her face told a lot.