Mining is nowadays done in the PRC using huge miner farms that run on cheap government subsidized electricity.
See this video to see what it's like:
For the average joe it's not economically viable. You would have to buy an expensive specialized ASIC mining device and you can bet that the Chinks have used it already in one of their mining farms and will only ship it when it's obsolete (as mining is an arms race, the difficulty keeps increasing. Bitcoin was designed that way and more efficient miners get released as time goes by, according to Moore's Law.
Bitcoin mining is an analogy of gold mining during the 19th century gold rush, in the beginning panners would find huge nuggets weighing several pounds and as time went by the latecomers only found little specks weighing a few grains. Also it was those who sold the mining equipment in that time period who made great fortunes and it's the Chinks who have cornered the Bitcoin mining equipment market as they have easy access to chip factories.
You can mine altcoins (alternative coins) such as Monero with an average PC. But you'd have to deduct the electricity costs from your profits.
Generally it's not worth it.
