Ginger, yes there are a slice of Americans who believe that. Most of them are the wealthy, although there are actually some poor who are led to believe they will one day join the ranks of the wealthy and so believe as they do. Simple brainwashing.
Biglybadgers- lol yes I like to think many of us are, although the stereotypical selfish, loud, arrogant, ignorant and mannerless "ugly Americans" do exist and give the rest of us "normal" people a bad name. :( Case in point- years ago one of my best girl friends and I went to Rio de Janerio. We had an amazing time, the Brazilians were so friendly, the food and music and nightlife was so much fun. We specifically chose Rio because we wanted to pick a location where there would not be many American tourists (like Cancun etc). (And reminder...we are American lol.) Anyway, one day we're relaxing on the beach and we see a group of guys being loud and obnoxious- we look at each other and said "Oh God, I bet they're American!" Yep we were right. Because they moved close to us and I guess they assumed we were Brazilian and were saying things about us, in front of us. So we answered them in English and they were taken aback, but not embarrassed as they should have been. Asked us to go out clubbing with them later and we were like no thanks f*ckers.