Are people from more affluent backgrounds better with money than people from poorer ones?

Not necessarily. I come from a core affluent family. I think it depends how you are raised. My younger sister was treated as daddy's little princess and therefore never really understood the real value of money, for her money comes and goes now. I on the other hand suffered growing up and my Dad made me fear poverty, therefore I am more careful and spend thrift when it comes to my personal finances. I interned for a full-service investment brokerage firm before called UBS and the minimum balance for a client to have an account is $250k. The financial planner I interned for had many wealthy clients with accounts from $250k to $8 million dollars, little do these rich people know that the advisor is making so much money under their noses for suggesting products like variable annuities and mutual funds that are not really in the best interest of clients when the goal is to maxamize investments. Some rich people, especially generationalist or ones who hold professions unrelated to finance lack the intellectual resources to maintain their wealth even if they have the spirit to preserve their wealth. These class of affluent people are prey to financial planners who are not really good in finance themselves.

We have 2 children. One is an obsessive saver and hated having to take out student loans for college. Nothing like trying to get her to stop sobbing long enough to hit the button. (She'll graduate with only $10k in loans, and is already paying down her interest.)

Our other child... she loves to shop. And hates to save. She does put away money, because we make her. We are hoping now the she's in college, and one of her freshmen classes spends some time on personal finance, she'll listen to her prof and it will start to sink in!

2 kids, same hard-working middle class family (career AF), yet two different outlooks on money.

In some ways, most likely yes. A poor person may not be knowledgable about investing, retirement planning, etc because they are focused on just paying the next bill.

it's how we're taught (or not taught) when we were kids. And so we never learn the value of a dollar.

No they aren't.

No.