>As I pointed out in an earlier email, this is just a backhanded way of >forcing metrication on those who do not want it. You can stand there all >day and claim he was not punished for selling in pounds, but, in effect, >that is EXACTLY what he was prosecuted for.
He was not punished for using pounds, he was punished for not providing the approved units AS WELL. >The government refuses to >certify his pound-only scale, then punishes him for using an uncertified scale. The government would have certified a dual scale though, which would have allowed him the 'freedom' to quote prices in and to weigh in pounds. The only thing he wasn't allowed to do was to keep people who used metric units in the dark. Isn't it the case that packaged goods in the US must be labelled in *both* metric and colonial ? So the UK situation is slightly less bureaucratic and heavy handed, isn't it ? >This certainly says it correctly, as in "If you wish to engage in commerce, >you will do so in metric (albeit with an ifp facade) or we will destroy you." If you engage in commerce, you must fulfill certain laws and requirements, which are enacted to protect the consumer from being defrauded, and the good name of the vendor. These laws range from fire safety, through guarantees of merchantable quality, to labelling. You could argue that all of these are unnecessary, as market forces would eventually have consumers avoiding shops that were death traps or which regularly produced bogus merchandise, but this would put all the onus on the consumer who would therefore be preyed upon by unscrupulous merchants. The law is not onerous. You can sell in pounds/pints/quarts, you can label in pounds/pints/quarts, you can talk to customers using the same quaint jargon, but you must provide signs in the 'official' units to provide a single comparative reference, and you must use scales that can display and be tested in these units. As for jailing people, if you break the law repeatedly, and ignore all warnings, then you must be liable to sanctions. As with many non-violent crimes, I would prefer to see a court confiscate property rather than confiscate your liberty, as the latter costs the taxpayer, and allows the lawbreaker to make a martyr of himself, but that is a wider issue. >I think the headline is easy, but the pro-force metricationists won't like >it: "Trader Punished for Not Supporting Metric." At least this is closer to the truth than the usual tirade about "trader punished for using imperial". How about "Trader punished for failing to fulfil basic requirements to ensure fair and enforceable measurements" ? >For numerous reasons, there is NOT going to be any forced metrication in >the USA, at least until the country has already become 95% metric. If we >want to speed up metrication in this country, we need to use our efforts to: > >(a) continue to educate the public-at-large as to its benefits, so they ask >for metric >(b) continue to apply what pressure we can on companies to metricate >(c) do our best to get the government to metricate -- a step that will >*tremendously* accelerate metrication in the USA. Here, I am in complete agreement with you. Not because the US government isn't empowered to force metrication on trade (it is in the constitution) but because (a) it wouldn't work, as it would provoke more opposition. (b) getting the government to metricate fully would drag everybody else along eventually. so for those reasons, I support Jim's approach (in the US) on *practical* rather than moral grounds. Note that in Europe, attitudes to government regulation is very different. People expect the government to regulate these issues of trade, and expect that traders be made to fulfill their legal obligations to the consumer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tom Wade, EuroKom | E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (all domain mailers). Dale House | X400: g=tom;s=wade;o=eurokom;p=eurokom;a=eirmail400;c=ie 30, Dale Road | Tel: +353 (1) 278-7878 Stillorgan | Fax: +353 (1) 278-7879 Co Dublin | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer Ireland | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !"
