In previous generations, especially for those who entered the workforce during the mid to late 1900s, it was possible for a generic individual to reliably use his status as an employee to achieve financial prosperity. These kinds of ubiquitously low-variance economic participation requirements were the ecosystem that formed the substance behind the rhetoric of the ostensible "American Dream," and indeed, was historically the motivating force behind why so many people from the so-called "third world" yearned and strove to immigrate to the United States. All one needed was a job, which was widely available, and with prudent saving, one could reliably enter the middle class before middle age. Even in places like China—obliterated by a hundred years of war, famine, and strife—slogans like the "iron rice bowl" represented an inherent promise of stability, despite that country's complete inability to offer its citizens the kind of material prosperity that Americans enjoyed during the economic boom of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.