GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

We Are Not Our Great-Grandparents' Bodies

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Ian Morris
Board of Contributors

Jun 12, 2019 | 20:14 GMT

Men line up at an army recruiting office in London in December 1915.

Men line up at an army recruiting office in London in December 1915. British recruiters were shocked by the generally poor health of men who enlisted in the military during World War I.

(TOPICAL PRESS AGENCY/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The West experienced a medical revolution during the 20th century that extended the productive lives of its citizens and thus contributed to its global dominance.
  • Many of the health gains in the West over the past 100-plus years were achieved relatively simply and cheaply. The next medical revolution in the West probably will be high tech, expensive and more exclusive.
  • People in the United States and Europe could see smaller and slower gains in the rate of improvement in their health as a result, while the health gap created in the 20th century between the West and the rest of the world steadily closes.

Medicine was one of the most important geopolitical forces of the 20th century, and it will remain so in the 21st. On the eve of World War I, British military recruiters were shocked to discover how unhealthy their troops were compared to Germans (let alone Americans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders). In our own age, though, the issues are rather different. Countries with good health care can extend the productive lives of their citizens, preserving human capital and improving the worker-dependent ratio. The graying of rich-world populations, as lifespans lengthen and fertility falls, need not be a negative -- although the rich world will face formidable challenges in finding the upside....

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