Many Americans from the turn of the century helped build America at a time when they couldn't afford shoes. Other groups of near peasants didn't come here until the early 1900s and were hated by some groups already in America (but more importantly were hated by old world grudges that came with them to America). My point is the people who built the nation were poor and only did it with determination, at least until the 1950s. The majority of groups were not working together as a cohesive unit with one common purpose. They each had a personal interest of advancement and that benefited the collective. Now since WWII the rest of the world was destroyed and looted, at which time the USAtook advantage of the situation to increase our standing. Now that there's no domestic production, advancements were done with debt. We're at the end of that cycle now and some of the groups seek to scapegoat and take advantage through plunder. America will quite possibly remind you of 1920s Germany
before it's done.