Americans are parodied for being stupid but, guess what? Our iodine levels have dropped dramatically. Asians have much more iodine from their diets. Guess why Americans consume so much less iodine now? PROFITS!
It costs a little more for the processed food and fast food industries to use iodine disinfectants on food preparation equipment so they don't use them now.
It costs a teeny tiny bit more for them to use iodized salt so they use the euphemistically named "sea salt" instead. They use the euphemism to convince consumers that this crappy non-iodized salt is better — it's natural because it's from the sea — whee! In reality all salt is sea salt. It's just that sea salt on packaging is non-iodized, inferior low-IQ, salt.
They'll teach you how to do a square root by hand in school but they won't tell you all the secrets rich people have to give their kids an advantage, like iodine.
Good nutrition is essential for competitiveness, via intellectual (brain) development.