We've Stopped Growing

From der Spiegel, an opportunity to to America bash:

For years, researchers have been wondering why Americans stopped growing. US citizens were among the tallest in the world up until World War II. But since then, heights have stagnated while Europeans have been getting taller and taller, with the average American now between two and six centimeters shorter....

..."We surmise that the health systems and high degree of social security in Europe provide better conditions for growth than the American health system, despite the fact that the system costs twice as much," said study co-author John Komlos

But at the very end of the article they admit that class differences don't explain the phenomenon:

Still, quite a bit more needs to be done to determine the relationship between social standards and height, says Komlos. "In short," he said, "the richest are neither the tallest nor the healthiest. Why that is so must be explained."

So at the end of the article they admit there was no reason for their speculation that the US is starving it's poor.

The factor Herr Komlos overlooked is the fact that in America we are weighted down by large amounts of gold. If we weren't burdened with all this gold we'd be as tall as our glorious smokestacks.