Too many Americans are physically or mentally sick/unbalanced.

"If health means wealth, as the adage has it, then America’s economic future looks grim. Traditionally, the US has enjoyed a health premium. In the Colonial era, American men were on average two to three inches taller than Europeans, according to military records, a fact that fascinates historical demographers because height is correlated with longevity, cognitive development and work capacity. Today, a premium is turning into a deficit. American men are shorter on average than Northern European men, and the gap is getting bigger. Six in ten Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition and four in ten suffer from two. “America is a sick society,” says William Galston in the Wall Street Journal. “Literally.”

America’s health deficit is a growing economic problem. The labor force participation rate is a dismal 62.4%: 11 million jobs are vacant, compared with just 5.7 million people who are looking for work, according to the US Chamber of Commerce, and 2.8 million people have disappeared from the workforce since February 2020. Employers complain about absenteeism and job-churn as well as their inability to fill jobs. Health-care costs head ever upward. At a time of growing tensions with both Russia and China, the health deficit is also a national security problem. A 2020 survey for the Pentagon found that more than three-quarters of young Americans (18-24) were unfit for military service due to health problems, with obesity the most prominent among them.

The most vivid sign of the health crisis is falling life expectancy."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/a-sick-america-cant-compete-with-china/2023/02/28/579c5062-b762-11ed-b0df-8ca14de679ad_story.html