Americans Got No Reason

Maybe this is why we aren't winning the medals in basketball anymore.

Height. Now academics are telling people that Americans are getting shorter. This observation has its genesis, I suppose, in the idea that Americans are also getting fatter. So our malnourished bodies are converting what little nutrition they get into fat rather than height. And the extra fat is smooshing us downwards. (Actually, that article blames it on health care.)

I, personally, have always felt that Americans were too short. From my own height of 6'6", it has been clear to me that we are basically a nation of munchkins. Scrawny munchkins, too. The abstract says that they only looks at whites and blacks, so immigration from Asia and Latin America shouldn't be a factor. But some of those white guys came from Europe after the war. Their own baseline is that height started to decrease after the Big One. I haven't read the whole article, but unless you are really, really careful, you will run into issues of intermarriage with immigrants and war orphans and the like.

However, let us assume that Americans are getting shorter. The researchers conclude that health care and welfare are the culprits. Americans can't stay healthy or get enough to eat. Because of that, we've gotten shorter. The primary factors in height are genetics and nutrition. Health care impacts both of those, welfare impacts nutrition and health care.

I do have to say that while the shortening of America is an interesting bit of trivia, I'm not certain I consider it the foremost issue in demonstrating that the lack of national health care is a problem. The inability of people to get prescription drugs seems a more direct and a more dramatic illustration than the idea that we've lost a few centimeters in height over the last six decades.

On the other hands, I might have to go to Europe to find that 6'1" red head I've been on the look out for for the last twenty years. I'm wondering, though. I'm still tall, right. I mean, should I actually be 6'7" or so, and I am just not living up to it?

On the other hand, anything that makes our health care and welfare systems look as inadequate as they are is a good thing.