Of the primary emotions fear is the one that bears most directly on survival. Children show fear. Adults try not to maybe because it's shameful or in some circumstances dangerous. The fear response is automatic though and your body runs through its reflexes whether you want it to or not.
America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory if not practice the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or at least we used to.