How about if I sell by the jadic? I am free to do so, right? Am I opening to fraud? NO! because all my neighbours know what a jadic is. It's what fits in Adrian's palm.
But the country doesn't stop at the edge of my neighborhood and the people in the next town don't know what a jadic is. So I order to protect THEIR rights the state mandates the use of the liter. It is my responsability as a citizen of the country to respect the fact that unless I want to sell through the back door only to my clients who know me and my measures and instead I want to be a licensed business that is allowed to trade to anyone, then I have to obey by the society's rules. If Mr. T grows bananas in his back yard and wants to sell them to his neighbour, or if he opens a private club then he can use whatever UofM he wants. But when he opens shop on public access streets the story changes. That is exactly what the EU directive is all about. In order to protect the majority's interets which are all the citizens of EU who may as well buy from MrT. at one time, they made it mandatory to sell by SI units. Because, and here is the magic phrase: If Mr.T.would be allowed to continue selling in other-than-SI units, then, he would be allowed to discriminate against any other legal citizen of the EU while maintaining a legal bussiness licence. Which, (and I hope we agree here) is wrong. What has this to do with Mr.T liberties? How about my liberties to sell loose products by the kg in US? What if my neighbours all understand the kg? I still can't do it because it's against he law which protects the rights of all US citizens that may buy from me. Adrian PS: This whole thing is very clear to me. Is it just me? Is it my English what keeps me fom making myself understood? Individual liberties and civil society's laws and regulations dance together. One cannot have total freedom while being a civilized society. This is as utopic as the communist society. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Jim Elwell Sent: Wednesday, 30 January, 2002 16:31 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:17775] Re: Fwd: Euro vs. Metricationt) At 03:19 PM 1/30/2002 -0600, Adrian Jadic wrote: >I think you exaggerate when comparing metrication with killing someone. Or >something. I was, which was why I called my analogy "trite." >I don't see any way in which it will kill individual freedom. The civilized >society is based on a universal acceptance of a set of rules of behavior. >W&M is part of it. I *promised* not to keep this up, but, one more time briefly: individual freedom means I can do what I want with my own property (barring fraud or force). That means if I want to set up a stand and try to sell my bananas by the pound, I can do so, and you nor anyone else nor the men in blue can stop me. I am hurting no one, and I cannot force anyone to purchase them. That is individual freedom. Mandated metric takes it away (as the guy in England has found out). If we all define our own meter, then we open the gates to fraud, which is something government *should* work to prevent. Selling by the pound is not fraud. Selling a pound (or kilogram) that is a different size than the "standard" is. Jim Elwell
