It spawns in the caves . <| sep |> Ted Talks you hear from so many different people in so many disciplines . <| sep |> America is the wealthiest nation on Earth , but its people are mainly poor , and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves . To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard , ' It ain ' t no disgrace to be poor , but it might as well be . ' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor , even though America is a nation of poor . Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous , and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold . No such tales are told by the American poor . They mock themselves and glorify their betters . The meanest eating or drinking establishment , owned by a man who is himself poor , is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question ' if you ' re so smart , why ain ' t you rich ? ' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child ' s hand glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register . Americans , like human beings everywhere , believe many things that are obviously untrue . Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money . They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by , and , therefore , those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves . This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful , who have had to do less for their poor , publicly and privately , than any other ruling class since , say Napoleonic times . Many novelties have come from America . The most startling of these , a thing without precedent , is a mass of undignified poor . They do not love one another because they do not love themselves . Kurt VonnegutAny one who tells you there isn ' tshouldn ' t be class warfare in America , is trying to sell you something .